Coronavirus: Worrying news for virus-ravaged US
Infections in virus-slammed US states like Florida could soon begin to drop, experts say. But now the country has a new problem.
Areas in the United States where coronavirus has surged appear to be peaking, with experts saying their case numbers could now begin to drop.
But with this comes a new problem – COVID-19 cases are beginning to rise in other parts of the country.
Cases in Florida, Texas, California and Arizona have spiked over the past month, overwhelming hospitals and healthcare workers.
“They may be cresting and coming back down,” America’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, told Good Morning America.
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But he also said there was a “very early indication” that the percentage of positive tests in other states was starting to rise.
He noted cases were going up in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky.
“That’s a sure-fire sign that you’ve got to be careful,” he said.
The US has the highest number of coronavirus-related cases and deaths in the world, with more than 4.3 million cases and over 148,000 deaths.
Dr Fauci also rejected claims by US President Donald Trump that he is “misleading the public” on the virus pandemic, after the leader retweeted a series of messages criticising him.
“I don’t even read them, so I don’t really want to go there. I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out,” Dr Fauci said when asked about the tweets.
“Because I think it’s very important. We are in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic, a pandemic. This is what I do. This is what I’ve been trained for my entire professional life and I’ll continue to do it.
“I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances,” he said.
FLORIDA HITS RECORD DEATH TOLL
Florida’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 6000 on Tuesday as the disease claimed a record 186 lives in its relentless march through the southeast US state, health officials said.
The so-called Sunshine State is now second only to California in total number of COVID-19 cases with 441,997, an increase of 9230 from the day before.
The latest cases put it ahead of New York, an early epicentre of the global pandemic which has wreaked havoc across the US.
The death toll for New York, however, still dwarfs Florida at 32,333, with 22,977 of those in New York City.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has been strongly criticised for his policy forcing nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients.
Some 6312 people died in New York nursing homes, or roughly one fifth of all deaths in the state.
A report released earlier this month by the state’s Health Commissioner, Dr Howard Zucker, absolved the Cuomo administration over the edict.
The widely panned report instead blamed infected nursing home staffers and visitors for spreading the virus.
Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim, however, slammed the report as a “cover-up” and said it was a “conflict of interest for the health department to investigate its own poor decisions”.
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In Florida, Tuesday’s death toll was the state’s highest for a single day, although not all fatalities necessarily occurred between Monday and Tuesday.
The state’s total deaths from the virus now stand at 6177 while 148,488 people have succumbed nationwide.
In Miami, only 8.7 per cent of intensive care beds were available.
Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has seen his approval ratings plummet since May when he boasted that the virus was contained and accused the media of sowing panic.
A Trump loyalist, Mr DeSantis has refused to require mask-wearing in public, although some mayors have done so in their jurisdictions.
Florida, which has no state income taxes and relies on tourist dollars, rushed to attract visitors in May and June as its economy crumbled and the virus appeared to have been contained.
New York and Florida have emerged as proxies for a wider battle between Republicans and Democrats over the handling of the pandemic.
Trump allies have highlighted New York’s higher death toll than Florida, while opponents predict the southern state’s death toll could soon overtake its northern rival.
On cable TV, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo – Andrew Cuomo’s younger brother – has repeatedly attacked Mr DeSantis, accusing him of mishandling the crisis.
The Trump campaign, responding to the Cuomo administration’s report into its nursing home policy, earlier this month said that Mr Cuomo “tragically devastated the senior population in New York and no amount (of) revisionist history can erase the governor’s grossly incompetent decisions”.
In an interview with PBS earlier this month, however, Dr Fauci heaped praise on New York’s handling of the virus, saying the state did it “correctly”.
“We’ve got to do the things that are very clear that we need to do to turn this around,” he said.
“We know that, when you do it properly, you bring down those cases. We have done it. We have done it in New York. New York got hit worse than any place in the world. And they did it correctly by doing the things that you’re talking about.”
Dr Fauci’s comments drew heated reaction conservatives.
“New York got hit worse than any place in the world. And they did it correctly" - Anthony Faucihttps://t.co/3B86O1bScC
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) July 18, 2020
Dr. Fauci called New York the model for coronavirus response because they "did it correctly".
— Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (@GReschenthaler) July 20, 2020
NY has 32,187 deaths
FL has 5,071 deaths
TX has 4,038 deaths
No way should the state with the most #COVID19 deaths be labeled the model response.
https://t.co/JgfBrR8lqL
Was this before or after the state of NY put infected #COVID patients into nursing homes? Allowing/promoting thousands of protesters to spread the disease? Unbelievable!
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) July 18, 2020
Fauci holds up New York as model for fighting coronavirus — 'They did it correctly' https://t.co/5TlDo9pexZ
With AFP
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