COVID-19 News from Around the Web

The US has significantly ramped up testing since its failure in the spring. On average, more than 640,000 tests were done in the country per day in the last week, according to the COVID Tracking Project. But a pandemic roadmap from Harvard experts suggested the US should be scaling up to 20 million tests per day by the end of July. Anthony Fauci, the US's top infectious-disease expert, told CNBC that ideally, the country would be "flooding the system with testing, so you really get a good handle about what is going on in the community." That, of course, is not happening. Instead, America's testing infrastructure is once again losing its grip as the larger-than-ever surge of new cases strains the system past its limits.

Packed elevators and crowded committee rooms. Legislators sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the House and Senate floor. People standing close to each other and talking, sometimes leaning in to whisper, without a mask in sight. Those were common scenes at the Mississippi Capitol in June — a month that saw a historic vote to remove the Confederate emblem from the state flag — and now at least 26 lawmakers have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the biggest known outbreak in any state legislature in the nation.

As coronavirus cases surge, inundating hospitals and leading to testing shortages, a rapidly growing number of Houston area residents are dying at home, according to an NBC News and ProPublica review of Houston Fire Department data. An increasing number of these at-home deaths have been confirmed to be the result of COVID-19, Harris County medical examiner data shows. The previously unreported jump in people dying at home is the latest indicator of a mounting crisis in a region beset by one of the nation’s worst and fastest-growing coronavirus outbreaks.

COVID-19 is a public health official's "worst nightmare," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease doctor, said Thursday. "What is the worst nightmare that a public health official could have and what are the things that we fear the most?" Fauci said. "The answer is consistent among me and my colleagues: The emergence of a respiratory illness that is highly transmissible it its efficiency of going from person to person that has a significant degree of morbidity and mortality." "Unfortunately for our planet, that's exactly where we are right now, with this now historic COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

The number of hospital beds available to treat critically ill patients is dropping across Georgia as COVID-19 hospitalizations soar past previous highs, raising alarms that time is running out to slow the spread of the virus before medical facilities reach crisis levels. Statewide, 2,322 people are currently hospitalized for COVID-19, well past the April 24 peak of 1,906. … The drop in available beds for the critically ill took place quickly. Just before the Fourth of July weekend, none of the regions that make up the state’s hospital emergency response network had critical care bed availability of less than 15%. “We are headed for a crisis as hospitalizations now have passed the prior peak,” said del Rio.

US jobless claims for the week that ended Saturday totaled 1.3 million, the Labor Department said Thursday. That came in below the consensus economist estimate of 1.38 million. Thursday's report marked the 14th straight week of declining claims. It also brought total filings over a 16-week period to nearly 50 million. Continuing claims, the aggregate total of people receiving unemployment benefits, totaled 18.1 million for the week that ended June 27.

From airlines to paper mills, the job news is grim, and there are growing signs it won't be getting better anytime soon. United Airlines is warning that it may have to furlough as many as 36,000 employees this fall. Demand for air travel has collapsed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The president of the flight attendants union called the warning a "gut punch" but also "the most honest assessment we've seen on the state of the industry — and our entire economy." Union President Sara Nelson tweeted that demand for air travel had recovered a small fraction of its pre-pandemic levels this summer and "even those minimal gains evaporated over the last week due to surging COVID-19 cases across the country."

The United States reported more than 60,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the biggest increase ever reported by a country in a single day, according to a Reuters tally. The United States faces a bleak summer with record-breaking infections and many states forced to close parts of the economy again, leaving some workers without a paycheck. In addition to nearly 10,000 new cases in Florida, Texas reported over 9,500 cases and California reported more than 8,500 new infections. California and Texas also each reported a record one-day increase in deaths.

With the summer months shaping up to be full of harrowing Covid-19 milestones, the fall could look a lot like March and April if the US doesn't "get our arms" around this pandemic, a top infectious disease expert warns. Already, records for daily cases are being set, ICUs are reaching capacity and most states are seeing spikes again, recalling the fear and uncertainty of months ago when the virus first broke out. To prevent the outbreak from spinning out of control, US residents must focus on controlling crowds, wearing masks and doing a better job at physical distancing, Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Wall Street Journal in a podcast Wednesday.

New Jersey adopted a stringent coronavirus face-mask order on Wednesday, and New York City unveiled a plan to allow public school students back into classrooms for just two or three days a week, as newly confirmed U.S. COVID-19 cases soared to a daily global record. Officials in New Jersey and New York, the hardest-hit states at the outset of the U.S. outbreak, are trying to preserve progress in curtailing spread of the virus in the face of a resurgence elsewhere across the country, especially the South and West. More than 47,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the two northeastern states, accounting for more than a third of the 132,000-plus Americans killed by the virus, according to a Reuters tally. More than 60,000 new COVID-19 infections were reported across the United States on Wednesday, the greatest single-day tally of cases by any country since the virus emerged late last year in China. And U.S. deaths rose by more than 900 for the second straight day, the highest level seen since early June. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy unveiled an executive order requiring face coverings outdoors where social distancing is not possible, citing a rise in the state’s coronavirus transmission rate. “It’s about life and death,” Murphy, a Democrat, said at a briefing.

The US is struggling with a resurgence of the coronavirus in the South and West. But the severity of Arizona’s Covid-19 outbreak is in a league of its own. Over the week of June 30, Arizona reported 55 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people per day. That’s 34 percent more than the second-worst state, Florida. It’s more than double Texas, another hard-hit state. It’s more than triple the US average. Arizona also maintained the highest rate of positive tests of any state at more than 25 percent over the week of June 30 — meaning more than a quarter of people who were tested for the coronavirus ultimately had it. That’s more than five times the recommended maximum of 5 percent. Such a high positive rate indicates Arizona doesn’t have enough testing to match its big Covid-19 outbreak. To put it another way: As bad as Arizona’s coronavirus outbreak seems right now, the state is very likely still undercounting a lot of cases since it doesn’t have enough testing to pick up all the new infections. The state also leads the country in coronavirus-related hospitalizations. With hospitalizations rapidly climbing, Arizona became the first in the country to trigger “crisis care” standards to help doctors and nurses decide who gets treatment as the system deals with a surge of patients. Around 90 percent of the state’s intensive care unit beds are occupied, based on Arizona Department of Health Services data. While reported deaths typically lag new coronavirus cases, the state has also seen its Covid-19 death toll increase over the past several weeks. This is the result, experts say, of Arizona’s missteps at three crucial points in the pandemic. The state reacted too slowly to the coronavirus pandemic in March. As cases began to level off nationwide, officials moved too quickly to reopen in early and mid-May. As cases rose in the state in late May and then June, its leaders once again moved too slowly.

Determined to reopen America’s schools despite coronavirus worries, President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to hold back federal money if school districts don’t bring their students back in the fall. He complained that his own public health officials’ safety guidelines are impractical and too expensive. Shortly afterward, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be issuing new guidance next week “that will give all new tools to our schools.” The recommendations will keep students safe, he said, but “the president said today we just don’t want the guidance to be too tough. ”Despite Trump’s increased pressure on state and local officials, New York City announced that most of its students would return to classrooms only two or three days a week and would learn online in between. “Most schools will not be able to have all their kids in school at the same time,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.