The US hits TWO MILLION coronavirus cases: America reaches another grim COVID-19 milestone as nine states see a spike in hospitalizations after reopening
The United States reached two million reported cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Though some countries are close to the one million mark, the US is the only nation to not only surpass that mark, but double it.
Just before midnight on Wednesday, Johns Hopkins University's world map of coronavirus cases put the US at 2,000,464 confirmed cases. The death toll in the US is 112,924.
Brazil has the next highest number of cases with 772,416 confirmed infections.
The United States reached two million reported cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday
Just before midnight on Wednesday, Johns Hopkins University's world map of coronavirus cases put the US at 2,000,464 confirmed cases. The death toll in the US is 112,924
Earlier on Wednesday it was reported that nine states are seeing spikes in the number of people who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since Memorial Day.
Coronavirus hospitalizations have been increasing in at least nine states - mostly in the south and south-west of the country - over the past two weeks.
Arizona, Texas, North Carolina and Utah are among those that have seen record spikes in hospitalizations since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in mid-March.
In Arizona, the state's health department told hospitals to activate coronavirus emergency plans in preparation for a potential surge in new cases.
South Carolina, parts of California, Oregon, Arkansas and Mississippi have also seen an uptick in the number of people being hospitalized.
All of those states, apart from Mississippi, are now virus hotspots after also seeing increases in the number of infections in the past week.
The uptick, which could lead authorities to reimpose or tighten public health restrictions, complicates efforts to reopen the economy that has been devastated by stay-at-home orders that were in place across much of the US.
Louisiana and Arizona have seen the number of deaths increase by more than 30 per cent in the last week compared to the previous seven days, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the COVID Tracking Project.
Earlier on Wednesday it was reported that nine states are seeing spikes in the number of people who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since Memorial Day. People wait to be tested at a drive-thru site in Pacoima, California, on Wednesday
| STATE | TOTAL CASES | NEW CASES | WEEKLY CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan* | 64,413 | 7,016 | +158.1% |
| Arizona | 26,889 | 6,953 | +93.3% |
| Arkansas | 9,426 | 2,173 | +63.3% |
| Utah | 12,066 | 2,269 | +61.5% |
| Massachusetts | 103,436 | 6,471 | +50.8% |
| Florida | 63,938 | 7,775 | +46.8% |
| New Mexico | 8,800 | 1,176 | +41.9% |
| Kentucky | 11,287 | 1,583 | +39.7% |
| South Carolina | 14,286 | 2,425 | +37.4% |
| Oklahoma | 7,150 | 644 | +37.3% |
| North Carolina | 35,546 | 6,957 | +29.6% |
| Nevada | 9,649 | 1,056 | +28.3% |
| Missouri | 14,553 | 1,406 | +21.3% |
| Texas | 74,978 | 10,691 | +19.6% |
| Georgia | 51,898 | 4,912 | +18.4% |
| Tennessee | 26,381 | 3,375 | +18.0% |
| Louisiana | 42,816 | 2,900 | +5.6% |
| New Hampshire | 5,019 | 474 | +3.9% |
| South Dakota | 5,438 | 445 | +3.5% |
| California | 128,812 | 18,229 | +2.0% |
| Connecticut | 43,968 | 1,767 | +2.0% |
| *Michigan added nearly 5,000 probable cases on June 5 | |||
North Carolina saw its hospitalizations spike to a record high on Monday when 774 coronavirus patients were admitted. The number of people being admitted has been gradually increasing since Memorial Day when 621 hospitalizations were reported
Texas set a record-breaking high for coronavirus hospitalizations with 1,935 patients admitted on Monday just one month after the state reopened early
In Arizona, the number of positive or suspected hospitalized COVID-19 patients has been increasing since May 26 and surged last week to record highs of more than 1,200 each day
Ohio and Florida saw fatal cases increase by more than 15 per cent and Indiana saw deaths go up by seven per cent in a week.
Michigan also recorded a spike in deaths - up 53 per cent - after the state reported 240 probable deaths on June 5.
Arizona recorded an increase of more than 90 per cent in new cases in the week ending June 7 compared with the previous seven days, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project.
Michigan saw a 158 per cent increase in new cases last week due mainly to the state reporting 5,000 probably cases on June 5.
Arkansas, Utah, New Mexico and Massachusetts all saw weekly increases of more than 40 per cent and new cases in Florida, Arkansas, South Carolina and North Carolina all rose by more than 30 per cent in the past week.
In New Mexico, about half of the new cases were from one prison in Otero County, state health officials said.
Utah said at least 287 of the state's 2,269 new cases were tied to an outbreak at a meat processing plant in Cache County.
Florida attributed its increase to more testing, while the other states have not commented on the increase in cases.
New cases in Texas were up 19 per cent in a week, according to the analysis.
Michigan's cases soared more than 150 per cent last week due to the state including nearly 5,000 probable infections.
The increases comes after all 50 states at least partially lifted coronavirus lockdown measures last month.
Some of the new cases are linked to better testing but many stem from loosened public health restrictions that have allowed people to gather in groups and go inside stores to shop.
Health officials believe other cases have been passed along by people not following social-distancing recommendations.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infection diseases, said Wednesday morning that a vaccine for COVID-19 could be ready by the end of the year, but it's not clear how long immunity will last
The number of new infections in the first week of June rose 3 per cent in the US, the first increase after five weeks of declines.
Infectious disease experts have warned that large protests held in major US cities after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago could touch off a new outbreak of the disease.
Officials have said it is too soon to see whether cases will also spike in the wake of the protests.
Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday there had been no sign yet of an increase in coronavirus cases from two weeks of nationwide protests.
'What I can tell you is that, at this point, we don't see an increase in new cases now, nearly two weeks on from when the first protests took effect,' Pence said in an interview on Fox Business Network.
'Many people at protests were wearing masks and engaging in some social distancing,' he said.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert on the White House coronavirus task force that Pence chairs, has expressed concern about the protests taking place during the coronavirus pandemic.
'When you get congregations like we saw with the demonstrations, that's taking a risk,' Fauci said Wednesday in an interview on Good Morning America.
Fauci also spoke about the possibility of having a vaccine by the end of this calendar year or in the first few months of 2021.
'So that's the thing that makes me confident that the process is really on track. Things are clearly going in the right direction,' he added in an optimistic interview with Good Morning America.
On Wednesday, Fauci said he predicts there will be more than just one COVID-19 vaccine, but it's not clear how long it will be effective for or whether it'll need to be taken annually like a flu shot. A drive-thru testing site is seen in Los Angeles
Fauci says he's hopeful to have the vaccines ready by end of the year because development has been promising so far. A man gets tested at a site in Seattle
Fauci said he predicts there will be more than just one COVID-19 vaccine, but it's not clear how long it will be effective for or whether it'll need to be taken annually like a flu shot.
'We’ll take it one step at a time. The first thing we want to do is determine if it’s safe and if it protects. How long that protection lasts... we're going to have to obviously observe that and that's the reason why when you make a vaccine it isn't the end of the game,' he said.
Fauci says he's hopeful to have the vaccines ready by end of the year because development has been promising so far.
'What I'm confident about is how well the process is proceeding in the development of more than one candidate that in early testing both in the animals and phase one testing in humans looks quite promising,' he said. 'It makes me cautiously optimistic as we get into the early summer.
'We're going to go into advanced clinical trials in at least one and close to maybe three or more candidates hopefully by the time we get to mid and late fall.'
'If the process goes well. We will have enough information to be able to make a decision whether the vaccine is safe and effective,' he added.
Just yesterday Fauci delivered a grim assessment of the COVID-19 crisis in the country, calling the ongoing pandemic his 'worst nightmare', warning the fight is far from over.
'In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,' Fauci said of COVID-19 during a virtual appearance at a Biotechnology Innovation Organization conference. 'And it isn’t over yet.'
The WHO recently walked back on its suggestion that asymptomatic coronavirus patients may not spread the virus aggressively.
'What happened the other day is that a member of the WHO was saying saying that transmission from an asymptomatic person to an uninfected person was very rare,' Fauci said Wednesday.
'They walked that back because there's no evidence to indicate that's the case. And, in fact, the evidence that we have given the percentage of people which is about 25 percent, 45 per cent of the totality of infected people likely are without symptoms.
'And we know from epidemiological studies they can transmit to someone who is uninfected even when they're without symptoms so to make a statement to say that's a rare event was not correct and that's the reason why the WHO walked that back,' he added.
The US hits TWO MILLION coronavirus cases: America reaches another grim COVID-19 milestone as nine states see a spike in hospitalizations after reopening
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