USA: Expert warns America is approaching ‘one of the most unstable times in the history of our country’
“We will have hospitals overwhelmed and not only in terms of ICU beds and hospitals, and that’s bad, but exhausted hospital staff and hospital staff that’s getting ill themselves,” Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “So, we won’t have enough manpower, human power, to manage all of this.”
The resurgence has many local leaders returning to actions taken in March and April to slow the virus’ spread.
At least 26 states have paused or rolled back their plans to reopen.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms sent the city back to Phase I of its reopening plan in response to the “alarming” increase in cases, which means the city’s residents should leave the house only for essential trips. Residents also are required to wear masks.
To free up the capacity for more testing and hospital care in a surge, Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp reactivated a makeshift hospital Friday at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Meantime, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott renewed a disaster declaration first issued March 13 to mitigate spread in his state and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer requested the extension of National Guard use through December for humanitarian missions such as running mobile screenings, distributing food and medical supplies and disinfecting public spaces.
“All people who study these viruses, think that the summer is the quiet time. Think about that. This is the quiet time for coronavirus,” Dr. William Haseltine, a former professor at Harvard Medical School, told Cooper Friday. “If this is the quiet time, I hate to think what winter is going to be like this year.”
A record setting day to end a record setting week
The US has set records for coronavirus infections and hospitalizations this summer — and this week was has been no different.
Georgia set a record for the number of new cases in one day on Friday with 4,484 new cases, according to the state’s department of health. The state’s previous record was set on June 26.
Also on Friday, the US reported its highest number of new cases in one day for the second time this week. The previous record for the US was set just one day earlier.
The Louisiana Department of Health reported 2,642 new cases Friday, making it the highest day of new cases since the pandemic began.
California, which has held rank as one of the hardest hit states, continued to set records in coronavirus hospitalization and ICU rates this week with over 6,000 patients being treated.
Hospitals stretched thin
Hospital capacity — a concern in many places when the pandemic first broke out — is being raised as a pressing issue once again.
An ICU nurse at Banner Health in Arizona said the staff and the three coronavirus ICUs at the hospital where she works are already stretched thin.
“Now, we’re kind of at the point where we are stretched so thin, we are at the point of compromising patient safety,” Lauren Leander told CNN on Thursday.
It’s a familiar story. In Riverside County, California, 10 out of 17 hospitals are at or above 100% capacity of licensed ICU beds, county spokesperson Brooke Federico said.
Florida has also reported a rise in hospitalizations.
A total of 6,991 people with Covid-19 are currently hospitalized in Florida, the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration said Friday.
And of the coronavirus cases in Miami-Dade County, Florida, 74% more are being hospitalized. There has also been an 88% increase in the number of ICU beds being used and an 123% increase in the use of ventilators, according to the latest data released by Miami-Dade County Government.
Florida governor: ‘No justification not to move forward’
Though the increase in cases and hospitalizations has been cause for concern for some state and local leaders, Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis has reiterated his stance that the state can handle the incoming surge.
DeSantis told reporters Friday that no major hospital system in the state “has even gone to like a surge level.”
In response to reports that the state has many hospitals reaching or at capacity, DeSantis told reporters “you’ve got a lot of beds available.”
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci cited Florida as one of the states that opened too quickly, saying on Podcast-19 Thursday that the state “jumped over a couple of checkpoints.”
DeSantis responded Friday telling reporters that the state had a “very low prevalence” of the virus in May and early June and that “there was no justification not to move forward.”
And though the governor did not acknowledge the 11,433 new cases that day, he said the rise across the Sunbelt “is something that we’re dealing with.”
CNN’s Sarah Moon, Melissa Alonso, Kay Jones, Rebekah Riess, Cheri Mossburg and Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report.
