The global number of reported deaths linked to the new coronavirus surpassed 500,000 on Sunday, as the number of cases reported worldwide topped 10 million—with the United States accounting for more than 25% of those deaths and North America accounting for about 25% of those cases.
US reports third consecutive single-day record of new coronavirus cases
As of Monday morning, officials worldwide had reported 10,151,300 cases of the new coronavirus, and 502,036 deaths linked to the virus.
In the United States, officials as of Monday morning reported 2,564,600 cases of the new coronavirus—up from 2,435,200 cases as of Friday morning.
The United States had seen a downward trend in newly reported coronavirus cases for six consecutive weeks. But new cases have now grown for more than a week and have surpassed the epidemic's previous peak.
U.S. officials on Friday reported 45,255 new cases of the coronavirus, which is the largest single-day increase reported so far. Friday marked the third consecutive day that the country reported a record-high single-day increase in new cases.
Data from the New York Times shows that 32 states—Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming—saw their average daily numbers of newly reported cases rise over the past 14 days.
On Friday, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, South Carolina, and Utah reported their largest single-day increase in cases, while Florida on Saturday reported a single-day record increase of 9,585 new coronavirus cases.
The surges in new coronavirus cases are prompting some state officials to reimplement coronavirus-related business closures and other measures intended to curb the spread of the pathogen. For example, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on June 12 allowed bars to open in the state, but on Sunday, he ordered bars in seven counties to close and recommended that bars in eight counties close.
As states experiences spikes in cases, hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. For example, hospitals in Arizona, Florida, and Texas have seen their numbers of Covid-19 patients swell.
In Florida, Miami-Dade County on Thursday reported a record-high number of hospitalizations linked to the new coronavirus—with 885 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals, up from 546 hospitalizations two weeks prior. Similarly, state officials in Texas reported 4,739 hospitalized patients with Covid-19—a number twice as high as 10 days ago.
"The numbers are definitely scary," said Judy Rich, chief executive of Tucson Medical Center, a hospital with more than 500 beds that serves patients from across southern Arizona. Since the beginning of the month, Tucson Medical Center has seen a threefold increase in its number of patients with Covid-19.
In Arizona, Banner Desert Medical Center, Valleywise Health Medical Center, and other hospitals have activated their surge plans to expand their capacity to treat patients with Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the New York Times' data shows that the average daily numbers of newly reported cases over the past two weeks remained mostly stable in Guam and 13 states: Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Virginia.
In addition, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and five states—Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont—saw their average daily numbers of newly confirmed cases decrease over the past 14 days, according to the data.
As of Monday morning, officials had reported a total of 125,814 U.S. deaths linked to the new coronavirus—up from 124,393 deaths reported as of Friday morning.
Azar warns 'window is closing' to stop coronavirus transmission
As America's coronavirus epidemic resurges, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during a White House coronavirus task force briefing on Friday said recent outbreaks could spread to other regions of the country where the virus had been relatively well contained.
"We are facing a serious problem in certain areas," Fauci said. "We have a very heterogeneous country, but heterogeneity does not mean that we are not intimately interconnected with each other. So, what goes on in one area of the country ultimately could have an effect on the other areas of the country."
Fauci added that, "If we don't extinguish the outbreak, sooner or later even ones that are doing well are going to be vulnerable to the spread."
To curb the spread of the virus, Fauci urged Americans to wear face coverings and practice social distancing. "You have an individual responsibility to yourself but you have a societal responsibility, because if we want to end this outbreak—really end it, and then hopefully when a vaccine comes and puts the nail in the coffin—we've got to realize that we are part of the process," Fauci said.
Similarly, HHS Secretary Alex Azar on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday called on Americans "to act responsibly" and practice social distancing and wear face coverings, noting that the "window is closing" to stop the transmission of the new coronavirus.
Pence says federal government won't mandate face coverings
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday said the federal government should require Americans to wear face coverings to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
"Definitely long overdue for that," Pelosi said. "And my understanding that the Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention] has recommended the use of masks but not required it because they don't want to offend the president."
However, Vice President Pence on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday said the federal government would not issue a mandate requiring Americans to wear masks, saying the White House would "defer to governors."
"One of the elements of the genius of America is the principle of federalism, of state and local control,” Pence said. "We've made it clear that we want to defer to governors. We want to defer to local officials, and people should listen to them" (New York Times, 6/29 [1]; Coleman, The Hill, 6/28; Lawler, Axios, 6/28; Gamble, Becker's Hospital Review, 6/27; Wamsley, NPR, 6/25; Yamamura/Marinucci, Politico, 6/28; Levey, Los Angeles Times, 6/26; Associated Press/Modern Healthcare, 6/27; Robles, New York Times, 6/29; Klar, The Hill, 6/28; Chalfant, The Hill, 6/26; Ollstein, Politico, 6/28; Sonmez et al., Washington Post, 6/28; Gowen et al., Washington Post, 6/27; Kasler, McClatchy, 6/28; O'Reilly, Fox News, 6/28; Coleman, The Hill, 6/28; Budryk, The Hill, 6/28; New York Times, 6/29 [2]; New York Times, 6/29 [3]).