Hospitals on the brink of capacity. Near-record cases. The virus continues its surge across the U.S.
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Version 0 of 1. The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in the United States has risen 40 percent in the past month, while the number of new cases approaches record levels and deaths continue to creep up in several heartland states. More than 75,000 cases of the coronavirus were announced in the United States on Thursday, the second-highest daily total nationwide since the pandemic began. Some 41,000 people are now hospitalized across the country, including many in the Midwest and the Mountain West, according to the Covid Tracking Project. While the nation has seen more people hospitalized at earlier points in the pandemic — during an onslaught of cases in New York City in April and in the Sun Belt in July — patients are now spread out much more broadly, raising concern for critically ill patients in rural areas with limited medical resources. According to the Times database, six states — Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Alaska, Ohio and Utah — have already set single-day state records for new cases on Friday. Thirteen states have added more cases in the past week (ending Thursday) than in any other seven-day stretch. At least six states set or tied seven-day death records in the week ending Friday: Wisconsin, Kentucky, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. More than 223,000 deaths linked to the virus have been recorded since the start of the pandemic. Since January, The New York Times has tracked cases reported by state and local health departments. Other tracking services use different combinations of government sources, which can lead to fluctuations in daily totals, especially with regards to daily records. Experts worry that the growing numbers in need of hospital care will only get worse if cases continue to mount. “I don’t really see any signs that things are slowing down and that concerns me a lot,” Caitlin M. Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, said. “It has to be our starting premise that it’s not going to slow down unless we force it to slow down.” In response to rising cases in Chicago, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot announced a curfew on nonessential businesses beginning at 10 p.m. on Friday. Residents were warned to avoid social gatherings of more than six people and end all gatherings by 10 p.m. Overnight, nearly 2,500 people were hospitalized in Illinois, the state’s top public health official, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, said in a news conference Friday afternoon. “Since yesterday we lost an additional 31 lives, for a total of 9,418 deaths. These are people who started with us in 2020 and won’t be with us at the Thanksgiving table. Today we are reporting 3,874 new cases,” she said wiping tears from her eyes and briefly turning away from the podium. Dr. Ezike said more than 500 hospitalized patients were in the I.C.U. and 197 were on ventilators. Citing a rise in hospitalizations across the state, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced a strengthening of coronavirus restrictions in certain counties, capping gatherings at 10 people from no more than two separate households. In the latest presidential debate, President Trump asserted that the virus was “going away” as he defended his management of the pandemic. Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee, attacked Mr. Trump’s handling, calling for much more aggressive federal action for the “dark winter” ahead. On Friday, Alex M. Azar, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said the president was “trying to give people hope, given the vaccines and therapeutics that are coming in around the corner.” Speaking on CNN, Mr. Azar said, “But we do need to acknowledge — and he does acknowledge — that we’re in a very serious moment right now.” Mr. Azar encouraged people to follow health precautions, such as wearing masks in public, even as his boss has not emphasized them. “We’ve got to keep focused on washing our hands, watching our distance, and wearing our face covering when we can’t watch our distance,” Mr. Azar said. “And in particular, being careful in household gatherings. This has become a major vector of disease spread.” The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that it had formally approved remdesivir as the first drug to treat Covid-19. The antiviral drug had been approved for adults and patients 12 years of age and older, and weighing at least 40 kilograms, for Covid-19 treatments requiring hospitalization, the F.D.A. said. Across the Atlantic, hospitals in parts of Europe that have been hit with a second wave of the virus are also scrambling to prepare for an onrush of Covid-19 patients. Poland has turned its largest stadium into an emergency field hospital. In Belgium and Britain, the numbers of Covid-19 patients have doubled in two weeks. And in the Czech Republic, doctors and nurses are falling ill at an alarming rate. The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals across the continent is still less than half of the peak in March and April, but it is rising steadily each week, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. People across much of Europe — including larger countries like France, Italy, Poland and Spain — are now more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 than those in the United States. |