With election looming, U.S. faces record surge of coronavirus cases

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Fri, 2020-10-30 16:11 — mike kraft

U.S. faces record surge of coronavirus cases as election looms A record surge of coronavirus cases in the United States is pushing hospitals to the brink of capacity and killing up to 1,000 people a day, the latest figures show, with much of the country's attention focused on Tuesday's presidential election. Lisa Shumaker, Aleksandra Michalska U.S.

Reuters) - A record surge of coronavirus cases in the United States is pushing hospitals to the brink of capacity and killing up to 1,000 people a day, the latest figures show, with much of the country’s attention focused on Tuesday’s presidential election.

The United States broke its single-day record for new coronavirus infections on Thursday, reporting at least 91,248 new cases, as 17 states reported their highest daily number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients since the pandemic started, according to a Reuters tally of publicly reported data.

More than 1,000 people died of the virus on Thursday, marking the third time in October that milestone has been passed in a single day. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has risen over 50% in October to 46,000, the highest since mid-August.

Among the hardest hit states are those most hotly contested in the campaign between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, such as Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. ...

“Our hospitals cannot keep up with Utah’s infection rate. You deserve to understand the dire situation we face,” Utah Governor Gary Herbert said on Twitter, echoing officials in other states and public health experts.

Utah was among 14 states to report record increases in deaths this month and among 30 states to report record increases in cases. The United States has recorded over 229,000 deaths and nearly 9 million cases, both the highest single-country totals in the global pandemic.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats released a report on Friday https://coronavirus.house.gov/news/press-releases/coronavirus-surges-select-subcommittee-releases-white-house-reports condemning the Trump administration’s pandemic response as being “among the worst failures of leadership in American history.” The failures had forced at least 6 million Americans into poverty and left millions more jobless, it said. ...

A CNN investigation found that 14 out of 17 counties surveyed showed an increased rate of new COVID-19 cases one month after hosting Trump rallies. The report presented the health data without drawing a causal link....

Rates of infection in eight of the 14 counties had been decreasing one month before the rallies, it said. In 10 counties, the new rates of infection were growing faster than the overall rate for the state. The report studied counties in 13 states including election battlegrounds of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida. ...

Also see: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/30/trump-jr-coronavirus-deaths-nothing-433665