COVID-19 News from Around the Web

For a second consecutive week, Texas, Arizona and Nevada set records in their coronavirus outbreaks, and 10 other states from Florida to California were grappling with a surge in infections. Texas reported over 5,000 new infections on Monday, a single-day record for the state. It has also seen COVID-19 hospitalizations hit record highs for 11 days in a row. … While the United States appeared to have curbed the outbreak for several weeks in May, overall cases rose 25% last week with 10 states reporting a greater than 50% rise in new infections, according to a Reuters analysis.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases testified at a House hearing on Tuesday that he is "quite concerned" about the rising number of cases in nearly half the country. "Right now the next couple of weeks are gonna be critical in our ability to address those surgings that we're seeing in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona and in other states — they're not the only ones that are having a difficulty," Fauci said. "Bottom line, it's a mixed bag. Some good, and some now we have a problem with." In the last 14 days, Oregon has reported a 234.4% jump in infections, Oklahoma jumped by 202%, Florida’s number increased by 155%, and Arizona’s confirmed coronavirus cases climbed by 142%, according to an NBC News analysis of state health department figures.

Four key government health care officials said Tuesday that despite recent remarks from President Trump, they were never ordered to “slow down” diagnostic testing for Covid-19. Their testimony at a congressional hearing came just three days after the president, at a campaign rally, told supporters that he had ordered a deceleration of Covid-19 testing. …“When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people, you’re gonna find more cases,” Trump said. “So I said to my people, ‘slow the testing down, please.’” White House aides quickly scrambled to downplay the remarks, insisting that the president was speaking in jest. Trump doubled down on Tuesday, however, telling a reporter “I don’t kid” and again referring to Covid-19 testing as a “double-edged sword.” Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers alluded to the president’s remarks as they questioned the four federal witnesses, three of whom were appointed by Trump: Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease researcher; Robert Redfield, the director of the CDC; assistant health secretary Brett Giroir; and Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the FDA.

Younger people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly testing positive for COVID-19, a marked shift from the early months of the pandemic when older adults bore the brunt of cases. The shift is especially evidence in states now seeing spikes in cases, including Florida and Texas. Experts attribute the rise in cases in younger adults to a variety of factors, including increased testing but, even more, large gatherings of people. … "I've seen bars and restaurants that look like it's New Year's Eve 1999, not a care in the world, nobody wearing masks, standing shoulder to shoulder," said Dr. James McDeavitt, senior vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Blacks were nearly four times more likely than whites to be hospitalized with COVID-19 among people with Medicare, the government said Monday. The analysis from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also found that having advanced kidney disease was an even more severe risk indicator for hospitalization than race, ethnicity, or being poor. … The group covered by Medicare is considered the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. Most of its 60 million enrollees are age 65 and older. Also covered are younger people who qualify because of disabilities.

Nurses and support staff at HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the U.S., plan to strike Friday in protest over cuts and concessions the corporation is pushing on front-line health care workers as the coronavirus continues to spread nationwide. … Erin McIntosh, a nurse in the code blue/rapid response department at the HCA-owned Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, California, for six years, is one of around 1,000 nurses represented by SEIU Local 121RN planning to strike in protest of hospital understaffing during the pandemic, which they say violates California’s nurse-to-patient ratio laws.

Dream City Church Senior Pastor Luke Barnett and Chief Operations Officer Brendon Zastro make the erroneous claims in a promo video that has been circulating online this week. The video has been removed from the church's Facebook page. … "We've installed these units and it kills 99.9% of COVID within 10 minutes," Zastro says. "When you come into our auditorium, 99% of COVID is gone, killed, if it was even there in the first place," Barnett says. "Thank God for good technology." The "technology," however, may be too good to be true. According to Clean Air EXP, the system can eliminate 99.9% of airborne coronavirus test surrogates from Coronavirus 229E and Cystovirus Phi6 – not COVID-19, specifically.

Alarming surges in coronavirus cases across the U.S. South and West raised fears Monday that the outbreak is spiraling out of control and that hard-won progress against the scourge is slipping away because of resistance among many Americans to wearing masks and keeping their distance from others. Confirming predictions that the easing of state lockdowns over the past month and a half would lead to a comeback by the virus, cases surpassed 100,000 in Florida, hospitalizations are rising dramatically in Houston and Georgia, and a startling 1 in 5 of those tested in Arizona are proving to be infected. Texas is among a number of states — including Arizona, Alabama, Florida and South Carolina — whose governors have resisted statewide mask requirements, leaving the matter to local authorities.

The U.S. is seeing a dangerous increase in coronavirus cases in the South and West. As the nation pushes forward with re-opening, half of all states are now averaging more new cases each day than they have in weeks. A fifth of new infections globally are in the U.S. Florida and Texas are setting records for positive tests, and their governors are warning they may need to crack down on people who aren't social distancing. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis acknowledges that increased testing alone can't account for recent record numbers of new COVID-19 cases. He says he'll crack down on businesses that don't follow social distancing guidelines, but adds he won't change the state's reopening plan or enact a state-wide mandatory mask order. With Florida topping 100,000 cases Monday, more younger people are testing positive. Doctors are sounding the alarm.

After months of lockdown in which outbreaks of the coronavirus often centered in nursing homes, prisons and meatpacking plants, the nation is entering a new and uncertain phase of the pandemic. New Covid-19 clusters have been found in a Pentecostal church in Oregon, a strip club in Wisconsin and in every imaginable place in between. In Baton Rouge, La., at least 100 people tested positive for the virus after visiting bars in the Tigerland nightlife district, popular among Louisiana State University students. At a Christian summer camp near Colorado Springs, at least 11 employees fell ill just before the season’s opening, leading the camp to cancel overnight stays for the first time in 63 years. And in Las Vegas, just weeks after casinos reopened, a handful of employees from casinos, restaurants and hotels have tested positive, and frightened workers on Monday begged guests to wear masks in a news conference conducted over video.

The spike in coronavirus cases in Florida, Arizona, Oregon and other Southern and Western states can be traced back to around Memorial Day, when officials began loosening their lockdowns, health experts said Monday. And in about two weeks, hospitals in those states could find themselves struggling to find enough beds for patients, one of the nation's top public health experts warned. In the last 14 days, Oregon has reported a 234.4 percentage jump in infections, Oklahoma jumped by 202 percent, Florida's number increased by 155 percent, and Arizona's confirmed coronavirus cases climbed by 142 percent, according to an NBC News analysis of state health department figures. Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Louisiana and more than a dozen other states — as well as Guam and the Virgin Islands — had increases in the numbers of reported cases in the last two weeks.

One-third of Medicare recipients diagnosed with Covid had to be hospitalized, and more than a quarter of that group died, according to federal data released Monday. The report, based on Medicare claims filed between January and mid-May, found that more than 325,000 beneficiaries were diagnosed with coronavirus and nearly 110,000 of them were hospitalized. And 28% of those who were hospitalized died, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Almost the same share went home Overall, there were nearly 525 cases per 100,000 Medicaid enrollees. But there were more than 1,100 cases per 100,000 Black enrollees, and nearly 700 diagnoses per 100,000 Hispanic recipients. The rate for Asian recipients was 450 and for Whites was 425 per 100,000. Those ages 85 and older had a rate of nearly 1,150 diagnoses per 100,000 enrollees, compared to roughly 350 per 100,000 among people aged 65 to 74 and 550 cases per 100,000 for people 75 to 84.