The third wave of the coronavirus pandemic has left nearly 50,000 Americans hospitalized with experts fearing several hospitals will soon be put under severe strain.
According to The COVID Tracking Project, hospitalizations rose in 47 states over the last month with a total of 47,502 people hospitalized as of Sunday – the highest level seen since the summer.
In Wisconsin, a record of more than 1,200 patients are hospitalized and nearly 90 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds are in use, the state’s hospital association says.
In the Southwest, New Mexico has been grappling with increasing rates of cases and hospitalizations. On Sunday, hospitalizations reached an all-time high of 365.
The state’s Department of Health says this is the tenth consecutive day that New Mexico has set a record for COVID-19 hospitalizations.
It comes as the US recorded more than 81,000 infections on Sunday, with the country’s total case count of 9.2 million rising by more than one million in the last two weeks.
The seven-day rolling average number of new daily cases hit 81,431 – a level not seen since early September – according to a DailyMail.com analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, daily deaths have fallen to lows not seen in two weeks with just 447 reported yesterday.
About 819 people are dying per day, the highest figure seen in more than one month but much lower than surges seen in the spring and summer, according to the DailyMail.com analysis.
It comes at the US prepares to head into Election Day on Tuesday with President Donald Trump saying the country is rounding the corner and Democratic rival Joe Biden says the president’s response to the pandemic has been ‘almost criminal.’
Coronavirus hospitalizations rose in 47 US states over the last month and there are currently a total of 47,502 people hospitalized as of Sunday.
The US recorded more than 81,000 infections on Sunday and the seven-day rolling average number of new daily cases also hit 81,431 – a level not seen since early September –
Meanwhile, daily deaths have fallen to lows not seen in two weeks with just 447 reported yesterday
Cases have been surging across the country, with the Midwest, Great Plains and Southwest seeming to shatter new records every day.
In Illinois, 6,980 new cases of coronavirus were reported on Sunday, finally breaking a streak of three straight recording-breaking days.
As of Saturday night, 3,294 Illinoisans are hospitalized with COVID-19. This is the highest level seen since May 30.
Of those, 692 patients are in the ICU and 284 are on ventilators
‘I know that the vast majority of people in this state want to keep themselves safe, keep their families safe, keep their children safe, their neighbors and friends,’ Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a news conference over the weekend.
‘But unfortunately, as these trends indicate, things are moving in a bad direction all across our state.’
Nearly the entire state is under an indoor dining ban and capacity limits with no gatherings allowed of more than 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity/
‘Every day now we see these numbers going through the roof, and so the idea that we’re going to make the locations that are amplifying the number of cases and the spread, the transmission of this virus, that we’re going to open those even more at this point makes no sense to me,’ the governor said.
As of Saturday night, 3,294 Illinoisans are hospitalized with COVID-19, which is the highest level seen since May 30, as about 7,000 cases are recorded every day
The Wisconsin Hospital Associations reported that an average of nearly 1,300 people are hospitalized with the virus, taking up 84 percent of hospital beds
There are more than 1,700 people hospitalized due to COVID-19, which is the highest figure seen since early May
In the battleground state of Wisconsin, new cases are at an average of about 4,300 per day, which is down four percent from last week, according to Johns Hopkins University.
News 3 Now reports that the state’s seven-day average of positive coronavirus tests is nearly at 30 percent, which is an all-time high.
The Wisconsin Hospital Associations reported that an average of nearly 1,300 people are hospitalized with the virus, taking up 84 percent of hospital beds.
What’s more, over the last two weeks, COVID-19 hospitalizations increased by 16 percent.
Meanwhile, 317 patients are in the ICU, making up just under 25 percent of all coronavirus hospitalizations.
Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks Wisconsin as having the third-highest number of cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days, behind North Dakota and South Dakota.
This led to Gov. Tony Evers (D) to extend an indoor mask mandate through November 21 and limit indoor public gatherings to 25 percent capacity – the latter of which is on hold due to a Wisconsin appeals court.
‘Every time you choose to stay home, every time you decline a party invitation, every time you choose take-out over dining-in, and every time you make another sacrifice after months of sacrifices, you help stop the spread,’ Evers said at a recent press conference.
In nearby Michigan, another swing state, 3,792 new cases were reported on Saturday, the state’s highest single-day total.
Daily infections have increased more than 50 percent since last week.
There are more than 1,700 people hospitalized due to COVID-19, which is far from the peak – but is the highest figure seen since early May.
In New Mexico, hospitalizations reached a record high of 365.
According to the state’s Department of Health, compare to the early days of the pandemic, more young people are being admitted to the hospital compared with older residents
In New Mexico, coronavirus hospitalizations have reached a record high of 365 with more young people people hospitalized according to state officials
North Dakota currently has the nation’s highest number of new cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks at 137.7 per 100,000, the CDC reports
Another record was also recently broken when deaths in the state recently topped 1,000 on Friday. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) ordered flags to fly at half-staff starting Monday for a week of mourning.
‘Every one of these 1,000 New Mexicans was loved by someone. Every one of these 1,000 lost New Mexicans leaves a hole in a family, a community, our state. I grieve with them. New Mexico grieves with them,’ she said in a statement.
Among the Great Plains, North Dakota and South Dakota are experiencing two of the country’s worst outbreaks
North Dakota currently has the nation’s highest number of new cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks at 137.7 per 100,000, according to the CDC.
The state’s seven-day rolling average of new daily cases has increased by more than 42 percent in the last two weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in North Dakota rose to 200 on Sunday, which is the fifth consecutive day of an increase, the health department There are are only 19 available ICU beds and 209 regular, inpatient beds across the entire state, according to the latest figures.
Michael Le Beau, the president of Sanford Health – which has just one ICU bed and five regular beds available, told The Associated Press that there needs to be high compliance regarding mask wearing and social distancing.
‘I do have a concern that the rate of growth is not sustainable,’ he said.
TEXAS REACHES TIPPING POINT WITH NEARLY 6,000 HOSPITALIZED COVID-19 PATIENTS AND FOUR MOBILE MORGUES SET UP IN EL PASO AS CASES SURGE THERE
By Natalie Rahhal, US Health Editor
Texas had 5,691 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Sunday, and the border county of El Paso has swiftly become one of the communities hardest hit by coronavirus with more potential coronavirus fatalities than its morgues can hold.
The southern Texas county has had to install four mobile morgues to keep up with the overflow of bodies of people who have succumbed to coronavirus there.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego had to request the fourth morgue be set up on Sunday – just one day after he had requested a the county’s third mobile morgue be installed.
As of Monday morning, the county had seen a total of 642 coronavirus fatalities, including three newly reported deaths. El Paso’s case count stands at 50,114. On Sunday, 1,143 new infections were recorded by the county.
That means that nearly seven percent of the population of the county has tested positive for COVID-19. Inevitably that
The county has a backlog of 85 bodies awaiting investigation to verify whether their deaths were caused by COVID-19. A total of 232 coronavirus fatalities are still considered ‘probable’ and are awaiting confirmation by medical examiners.
‘People that die are under investigation, to see if they died of COVID and to discern whether or not they had other diseases. That holds back the process,’ Judge Samaniego said, according to KFOX14.
‘I think you’re going to see tremendous more deaths coming up in the next two to three days.’
One of four mobile morgues now being used to hold an overflow of possible COVID-19 victims is parked outside the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner. This one was first set up in July, and the most recent mobile morgue arrived on Monday to help hold more than 200 bodies under investigation for the infection
Even as COVID-19 threatens to overwhelm El Paso, Judge Samaniego is embroiled in a bitter fight with Dee Margo, mayor of the the city of El Paso.
The judge ordered a shutdown of non-essential businesses and a two week stay-at-home order. But the El Paso mayor and Texas Attorney General have stood in staunch opposition to the Judge’s shut down order.
Ken Paxton, the state AG, issued a blunt tweet on Friday, claiming that the judge had no authority to close down the county.
Mayor Margo claimed that the judge had not consulted with him and wouldn’t take his calls. Margo said he was seeking further counsel from his own attorney on next steps.
When asked by KLAQ what El Paso residents and businesses should do, Margo said, simply: ‘Remain open.’
Mayor Margo, AG Paxton, and other officials in the state claim the judge is overstepping the responsibility and capacity of his office by attempting to tell El Paso residents to shelter in place, a mandate that runs counter to the measures put into place by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Governor Abbott issued an executive order last month that expanded the authority of county judges to issue some new restrictions if COVID-19 began to run out of control in their jurisdictions.
But, their power was capped at reducing business capacity to 50 percent – a far cry from a full shut down.
‘Judge Samaniego did not have authority to issue emergency orders more restrictive than Governor Abbott’s,’ claims the the lawsuit filed by AG Paxton.
‘Thus, his order usurps both the Texas Legislature’s ability to control who exercises legislative authority and Governor’s Abbott’s role as the designated individual responsible for meeting disasters on a statewide level.’
By way of reply to the legal challenge and heated conflict between himself and other local officials, Judge Samaniego said in a Friday Facebook post that he and Mayor Margo had previously been unified in the need for more restrictions, but when had become divided when the governor’s office stonewalled their request to issue a stay-at home order.
‘I would like to start by stating that any reasonable person knows that fighting through the media is never good for a healing community or a community that is under siege by a deadly virus; so much so that our hospitals are saturated and the lives of so many in our region depend on the limited and dwindling state of our healthcare system,’ Judge Samaniego wrote, before he ‘set the record straight’ and explained that he and the mayor had previously been in ‘lockstep’ about how to fight COVID-19 in El Paso until recently.
The fourth mobile morgue arrived on Monday, long lines snaked from COVID-19 testing sites and county officials are scheduled to meet to attempt to iron out a laundry list of measures needed to cope with coronavirus in El Paso.