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On Friday, the United States reported over 99,000 cases of coronavirus, which is a number reached for the first time since the pandemic started. Almost two dozen states reported their worst weeks for new patients after eight months of fighting the virus, and none are reporting progress.
Although the U.S. is undertaking record-high testing levels, the recent surge in infections cannot be fully explained. Hospitalizations are also growing, and accidents are increasingly occurring, measures that generally lag behind climbing events.
Hospitalizations and mortality are upwardly trending. More than 46,600 were hospitalized with the virus across the nation on Friday, a 25% rise with the past two weeks. More than 1,000 Americans died from COVID-19 on Thursday, a 16% rise from two weeks earlier.
On the same day, the son of President Donald Trump Jr. tried to downplay the seriousness of the outbreak, saying that deaths were close to none in an interview. Over 229,000 Americans have died from the virus in total, and over 970 deaths were announced on Friday.
Cities are also issuing alerts as cases move upwards. San Francisco Mayor announced that the city was temporarily suspending the reopening of some businesses and activities planned to resume on Tuesday. Restaurants will now remain at 25% indoor dining capacity, and gyms’ indoor pools and locker rooms will remain closed.
With the nation facing the final stretch of a turbulent campaign season dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. health officials have announced on Friday that over the past 24 hours, 100,233 more individuals had tested positive for COVID-19.
For the fifth time within the past ten days, Friday’s count set a new single-day high in U.S. cases, surpassing the previous peak of 91,248 new infections registered a day earlier. It also represented the highest national daily toll in the world during the pandemic, exceeding the 24-hour mark set in September by India of 97,894.
The pandemic remains a political issue, even in El Paso, Texas. With the increase in infections and hospital capacity being strained, the mayor declined to comply with the county’s top executive’s order to shut down non-essential businesses.
Ricardo Samaniego, the county executive, said in a statement that he was seeking legal alternatives to implement his two-week shutdown order.
Trump has consistently played down the virus, saying for weeks that even as new cases and hospitalizations increased, the nation is rounding the corner. He also retained his upbeat tone in a tweet on Friday, saying the country was “doing much better than Europe” in confronting the pandemic.
Within the U.S. 0n Friday, the House of Representatives, Democrats issued a report criticizing the Trump administration’s pandemic response as one of the most significant leadership failures in American history. Joe Biden and fellow Democrats have also criticized the president in Congress in handling the health crisis.
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