Coronavirus US: United States hits new record with more than 70,000 new cases

The United States has set a new record for daily COVID infections, with morgues across the virus-racked country running out of space for bodies.

The United States has set a new record for daily coronavirus infections, with more than 70,000 new cases recorded overnight.

There were 77,255 new cases reported, topping a previous high set two days ago, according to Johns Hopkins University figures.

Record numbers of COVID-19 fatalities were reported in Florida, Texas and South Carolina, with fears hospitals could soon reach breaking point.

America’s top infectious diseases specialist Dr Anthony Fauci has urged governors and mayors to be as “forceful as possible” about getting people to wear masks.

“When you‘re living your life and trying to open up the country, you are going to come into contact with people. And for that reason, we know that masks are really important, and we should be using them everywhere,” he said during a US Chamber of Commerce virtual event.

The World Health Organisation has reported a record increase in global cases, with the total rising by 237,743 over the last 24 hours.

It comes as a chilling new phase has been reached in the US, as morgues run out of space for bodies, forcing them to order in refrigeration trucks to cope with the overwhelming death toll.

Counties in Arizona and Texas have ordered in the so-called “mobile morgues” after accelerating rates of COVID-19 resulting in death overwhelmed some facilities.

Spectrum News in Texas reported “the grim reality that in some regions morgues are at capacity and cannot handle the number of dead”.

With the death toll sharply rising, local officials responded by putting refrigerated trucks on standby, in order to increase morgue space.

The morgue in Nueces County’s Corpus Christi, on the Gulf of Mexico 200km south of San Antonio, is already full.

Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales told NBC affiliate KRIS-TV this week she was in the process of ordering additional body bags and morgue trailers.

Travis County, where the Texas capital of Austin is situated, is also in the process of acquiring refrigerated trucks in order to deal with the number of bodies.

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Bodies are moved to a refrigerator truck serving as a temporary morgue in Brooklyn. Picture: Bryan R. Smith/AFP

A body is moved from a refrigeration truck serving as a temporary morgue to a vehicle at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, in the Borough of Brooklyn in New York. Picture: Bryan R. Smith / AFP

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Morgues in Texas’ Cameron and Hidalgo counties near the Mexican border now either have refrigerator trailers for the dead, or have ordered them, The Texas Tribune reported.

The morgue at Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes the capital Phoenix, was at 96 per cent capacity by last weekend.

County officials said in a statement they were working with the local Department of Emergency Management to “secure a contract for refrigerator trucks.”

The city’s largest hospital network, Abrazos Health, has also ordered “refrigerated storage”, even though it currently has “adequate morgue space”, according to officials.

Arizona has steadily broken records for daily new cases of COVID-19.

It reported 3259 new COVID-19 cases and 58 more known deaths on Thursday, bringing the total to 134,613 and known deaths total 2492.

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Medical personnel prepare to test hundreds of people lined up in vehicles in Phoenix's western neighbourhood of Maryvale for free COVID-19 tests. Picture: Matt York/AP

Arizona and Texas counties are now ordering refrigerated trucks as they see a surge in virus deaths as Brooklyn, NY (above) did in May. Picture: Stephanie Keith/Getty

So this is the situation in Brooklyn, New York: bodies now being stored in refrigeration trucks as #coronavirus deaths surge. Meanwhile, a day earlier in Mandeville, Saturday market was in swing and people hugged and greeted like it was business as usual, one official reported. pic.twitter.com/2SkH41TLuO

— Damion Mitchell (@DamionMitch) March 30, 2020

On a block in Brooklyn sits a refrigerated morgue truck. Marc Kozlow walks his dog, Hank, past it. He hears the refrigerator at night. He watches the bodies being loaded and unloaded. “Prepare for this,” he told ProPublica. https://t.co/v5N7v2zTFH

— ProPublica (@propublica) March 30, 2020

Two trailers are now needed to handle Wyckoff Heights overwhelmed morgue. Be safe and quarantine new york. #COVIDー19 #nyccoronavirus pic.twitter.com/mkFucfNzVE

— Marc Koz (@mjkoz) April 1, 2020

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Texas and Arizona are following the cities of Detroit and New York where the arrival of white semi-trailer morgue trucks lined up outside a number of hospitals back in March and April was a sobering sign of the death rates from COVID-19 early on in the pandemic.

Residents in Brooklyn were shocked to see workers using forklifts to load bodies into a refrigerated truck at Brooklyn Hospital Centre.

In April, New York City set up 45 new mobile morgues and local crematories were given permission to work around the clock.

This week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reported the coronavirus curve had been brought down, with 831 new daily cases across his state, and a total of 404,006.

Back when New York was the epicentre of the pandemic, it had a daily average of more than 10,000 new cases.

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