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Texas Suffers 3rd Day Of Record COVID-19 Deaths, Elected Surgeries Suspended In Hardest-Hit Counties: Live Updates

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Texas Suffers 3rd Day Of Record COVID-19 Deaths, Elected Surgeries Suspended In Hardest-Hit Counties: Live Updates

Tyler Durden

Thu, 07/09/2020 – 17:08

Summary:

  • Texas reports 3rd straight record death
  • Wisconsin sees biggest daily jump
  • South Africa sees another record jump
  • California reports record jump in deaths
  • Cali Gov holds press briefing
  • WHO begins ‘independent’ review of COVID-19 response
  • Italy bars travelers from 13 countries as cases creep higher
  • Arizona reports new cases
  • NYT names Arizona “world’s worst COVID-19 hotspot”
  • Florida reports record jump in deaths, hospitalizations
  • Goldman: 40% of US population lives in states where reopening has been rolled back or delayed
  • US single-day tally tops 60k again
  • At least 5 states reported record single-day cases on Wednesday
  • Global total tops 12 million
  • 7-day average death rate creeps higher
  • Tokyo, Hong Kong report single-day highs of new cases
  • India reported 22.7k new cases
  • Victoria reports another 165 new cases
  • Beijing slams US over WHO pullout

* * *

Update (1654ET): Texas reports 9,782 new cases of coronavirus and a record 102 new deaths, the state’s second straight single-day record after Wednesday’s case total. The death toll increased by 102, depending on which source you want to believe. That’s higher than the 98 reported yesterday, and the state’s first triple-digit day for deaths since the outbreak began. 

In response, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday issued a Proclamation suspending elective surgeries in hospitals in all counties located within 11 Trauma Service Areas in Texas.

The positivity rate in the state was around 18% on Thursday, also a new record high.

While NYC’s hospitals remain nearly empty, hospitals across Texas are reporting a massive influx of patients, with the sickest often fighting the virus for weeks, sometimes more than a month, before passing away. CBS News spoke to a team of doctors in McAllen, Texas.

“Knowing how things have progressed, are you worried?” CBS News asked Dr. Osman Khan, an emergency room physician.

“Yeah, I am worried. I feel like it is just the beginning for us. It seems like it’s going to be getting a lot worse,” Khan said.

While we were there, Kahn was treating patients who were developing pneumonia.

“Have you seen your husband?” CBS News asked. “Once,” Prieto replied.

One patient had lost her 35-year-old daughter to the virus the week before.

* * *

Update (1615ET): Wisconsin, a state that hasn’t received too much attention during the outbreak so far, just reported a record jump in new cases even as neighboring Illinois has found success suppressing the virus. The state reported 754 new cases.

The numbers brought the state’s 7-day average to its highest level yet.

Elsewhere, South Africa just reported another record jump in new cases, and a positivity rate of over 24%.

* * *

Update (1600ET): Dr. Fauci said Thursday that some states should consider returning to a lockdown scenario to help suppress the virus.

Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease official, is advising that some states seriously consider “shutting down” again if they are facing major resurgences of the virus — a warning that conflicts with President Trump’s push to reopen the country as quickly as possible.

“I think any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down,” Fauci said Wednesday. “It’s not for me to say, because each state is different.”

Fauci added Thursday that while he hopes there’s no need for new shutdowns, it “would not be viewed very, very favorably,” and urged states to pause their reopening process to slow the spread of the virus.

* * *

Update (1540ET): Newsom’s briefing Thursday focused on wildfire preparations, but data released by state public health officials after he finished speaking shows California reported a record number of single-day deaths, though Newsom claims some of them are part of a “backlog”, which also added 2,000 cases to Thursday’s count of 7,031 new virus cases, which is below the 7-day average (8,043), even more so if one subtracts the 2k.

Yesterday, the state reported 11,694 cases. On Thursday, the state reported 149 new virus deaths, well above the 7-day average of 73.

This helpful chart from CNBC puts the outbreak across the US in perspective.

* * *

Update (1500ET): California Gov Gavin Newsom is holding a press briefing…

* * *

Update (1400ET): The WHO named the heads of an independent panel it’s establishing to review its COVID-19 response pandemic that has been criticized by the US.

Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former president of Liberia, were selected as co-chairs, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a meeting with member-states. The panel will present an interim report in November.

WHO has come under fire for its response to the coronavirus outbreak from President Donald Trump who is pulling the U.S. out of the global group, saying that it’s too close to China. Tedros has responded that the agency acted appropriately with the information it had and the rest of the world had plenty of time to prepare to fight the outbreak.

We’re curious to see the report, whenever it’s released.

* * *

Update (1315ET): As Florida officials continue to refuse to offer a breakdown of hospitalization data, localities have been releasing figures like the number of occupied ICU beds on their own. And what they’ve found is that 190 COVID-19 patients are on ventilators throughout the county, which includes the city of Miami.

  • MIAMI-DADE HAS 190 COVID-19 PATIENTS ON VENTILATORS; PREV. 184

It’s just another alarming hospital occupancy headline, but the market doesn’t seem to be reacting much.

* * *

Update (1250ET): As COVID-19 cases creep higher in Italy (though deaths continue to slide)…

…the country just declared travelers from 13 countries barred from Italy. The countries include Brazil. Americans are also barred from traveling to most EU countries, except in special circumstances. Italy announced earlier this week that it would bar travel from Bangladesh after  a flight from the country brought many infected travelers to Italy.

Meanwhile, lockdown measures have mostly been lifted across the country.

* * *

Update (1157ET): Arizona has released its latest number. Confirmed cases rose by 4,057 to a total of 112,671, the state Department of Health said Thursday (remember, these figures are reported with a day lag). Further details of the daily update revealed that COVID-19-related hospitalizations increased by 16 to 3,437 as of Wednesday , a 12th straight record high.

75 Arizonans died, pushing the state’s death toll above 2k.

The market didn’t like these numbers, apparently.

Adult intensive care unit beds in use by all patients in the state edged lower from 91% on Tuesday to 89% on Wednesday.

Here’s more from the state’s dashboard:

The positivity rate tumbled to 11.5% on Thursday, well below the nearly 30% rate the state reported yesterday.

As states cleared a rumored weekend backlog yesterday, at least five states – Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia – set single-day records for new infections on Wednesday, per the NYT.

Additionally, the NYT this morning declared Arizona the world’s biggest “hot spot”, claiming the state has the largest infection rate (often represented by the variable “R”) in the world.

The NYT ranked Arizona No. 1, with about 3,300 cases per 1 million in population, with Florida (2,700) and South Carolina (2,300) following. Bahrain (2,200) took the No. 4. spot.

* * *

Update (1040ET): Florida just suffered its deadliest day yet, health officials reported Thursday.

While the state reported 8,935 new cases (+4%) on Thursday, the number of new deaths hit yet another single-day record with 120 new deaths, 7 deaths higher than the prior record of 113 reached back in early May.

The state also added 411 new hospitalizations. The previous high for new hospitalizations was 400 people back in mid-May. About 17,500 people have had to seek hospitalization because of the virus so far.

The positivity rate in the state hit 18.4%, up from 14.1% in the prior day.

Here’s a rundown of the state’s latest totals for cases, deaths, tests and hospitalizations.

 

* * *

Update (0830ET): A team of analysts from Goldman Sachs wrote in a note sent out to clients that 40% of America’s population lives in a state that has rolled back its reopening plans.

The coronavirus situation in Arizona continues to worsen with new confirmed cases per day continuing to grow on the back of still-growing prevalence of COVID-like symptoms. Hospital capacity in the state is diminishing further. In other states that have high new case counts and fall short on other gating criteria, such as South Carolina, Georgia, and Nevada, hospital and ICU capacity looks slightly better but is still below recommended levels.

More states continue to put their reopening plans on hold. Over the past few days, Connecticut, Ohio, and Washington have delayed reopening plans or placed reopening on hold. States with over 40% of the population have now put reopening on hold, and states with another 30% have already reversed part of their reopening.   

Even states that have their outbreaks under control are rolling back measures as a precaution.

States are increasingly putting their reopenings on hold. Over the past few days, state officials in Connecticut, Ohio, and Washington delayed planned reopening measures or explicitly put reopening on hold. States containing over 40% of the population have now put reopening on hold, and states with another 30% have increased restrictions. Several state governors have also issued new executive orders instituting specific social distancing and other requirements. In Washington, these practices are required “until there is an effective vaccine, effective treatment or herd immunity.”   

Goldman illustrated the trend of pausing the economic reopening across the country.

The latest state tracker put together by the team reflects all of yesterday’s near-record numbers.

The tracker also reflects the larger numbers of deaths we’ve seen over the last two days.

* * *

Wednesday was another brutal day for the US during the global coronavirus outbreak as all of the worst hit states in the sunbelt produced new single-day records ranging from the highest 7-day positivity rate (Florida) to new records for deaths (Texas), single-day cases (California) and hospitalizations (Arizona, Florida, Texas etc).

After the US reported more than 60k new cases on Tuesday for the first time, the country repeated that feat on Wednesday, essentially tying its record number from the prior day.

But as the COVID tracking project points out, the 7-day average for deaths is “creeping back up” after two days of deaths near 1,000 (on Monday, the US reported fewer than 500 deaths for the entire country).

As deaths continue falling in New England, the sun belt has more than compensated for it.

As we noted, the US also topped 3 million cases yesterday.

So far on Thursday, the bad news out of the US has apparently carried over to Asia, as Hong Kong and Tokyo both reported new single-day records of new cases, as new outbreaks in both territories have come roaring back in recent weeks. Both areas are closely watched bellwethers of the outbreak in East Asia.

Tokyo confirmed 224 new infections on Thursday, its  largest single-day tally yet. While Tokyo has focused its virus suppression efforts on nightlife districts, more mundane places like diners and – of course – nursing homes have seen several outbreaks.

 

 

The city’s mayor has said there are no plans to reinstate the state of emergency that was lifted in Tokyo last month.

Hong Kong health officials have warned of a third wave of coronavirus infections after the city recorded 23 new cases in two days. Social distancing measures in HK were largely lifted over the past two months as the city’s cases dwindled. An outbreak at a nursing home in Kowloon has contributed 8 infections to today’s total – four residents and four staff tested positive, on top of one resident who tested positive yesterday.

In response, authorities have reintroduced limits on the size of gatherings, with a maximum of eight people. At bars and restaurants, it’s 4 people per table tops. Catering businesses can only operate at 60 percent of their usual capacity. Gyms and karaoke lounges must have no more than 16 people in each room or facility.

India reported 22,752 new cases, up slightly from 22,252 yesterday, bringing India’s virus total to 742,417. The death toll has jumped to 20,642, up 482.

Meanwhile, as tensions with Beijing intensify, with the White House mulling new retaliatory measures ranging from an assault on the HKD currency peg to barring the popular social media app TikTok, Beijing hurled a few rhetorical rocks Thursday morning when Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian slammed the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw was “another demonstration of the US pursuing unilateralism, withdrawing from groups and breaking contracts.”

The WHO is “the most authoritative and professional international institution in the field of global public health security,” Zhao said at a briefing Wednesday, adding that the US departure would hurt the developing world, the AP reports – contrasting America’s WHO withdrawal with President Xi’s promises of forgivable or zero-interest loans and bundles while supplying the developing world with the vaccine.

In Australia, Victoria, the worst-hit Australian state, recorded another 165 case, as an outbreak at a Melbourne high school emerged as the largest cluster in the country. Queensland state also closed its border to people fleeing a six-week lockdown in Melbourne. In addition to the lockdown, Victoria has effectively sealed its borders, while neighboring New South Wales has also shut its border with Victoria.


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