U.S. seven-day average of new coronavirus cases surpass 60,000 for the first time
KEY POINTS
1. More than a third of U.S. states reported record highs in daily new cases Monday, based on an average over the previous seven days.
2. On Monday, 14 states also reached record highs average hospitalization numbers, including Texas, California and Arizona.
The U.S. for the first time surpassed more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases on Monday, based on an average of new cases per day over the previous seven days, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Across the country, more than a third of U.S. states reported record highs in daily new cases, based on a seven-day moving average, according to the data. Twenty states, including Florida and Georgia, broke records on Monday with an average of 10,855 and 3,358 new cases, respectively.
As the number of Covid-19 cases continue to surge in the U.S., labs across the nation are falling behind in processing and delivering test results, according two of the country’s biggest lab diagnostics companies.
“We attribute this demand primarily to the rapid, continuing spread of COVID-19 infections across the nation but particularly in the South, Southwest and West regions of the country,” Quest Diagnostics said in a statement.
The lab company said it can now perform up to 125,000 tests per day, roughly double its capacity compared with two months ago.
Despite the dramatic increase, demand for testing is “increasing even faster,” the company said.
When adjusting for population size, Florida now has the fastest growing outbreak in the U.S., followed by Arizona, Louisiana and South Carolina.
The average daily Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in Florida and Arizona have caught up to New York during the height of its epidemic in April, according to the CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data.
On April 10, New York averaged 51 daily new cases per 100,000 people, according to the data. Similarly, Florida saw nearly 51 average new cases on July 13 and Arizona reported 53 daily new cases per capita on July 6. The numbers show the two states are now on par with New York’s outbreak in April.
However, some public officials warn that the increased testing capacity now may be skewing those numbers. New York wasn’t able to do nearly as much testing in April as many states do now. As a result, many cases may have gone undiagnosed and under reported then.
Hospitalizations across the country, however, continue to hit new record highs indicating widespread community transmission, epidemiologists say.
On Monday, 14 states broke grim records in seven-day average hospitalization numbers, including Texas, California and Arizona, according to a CNBC analysis of data from the Covid Tracking Project.
Hospitalizations in Texas surged nearly 31% on Monday, based on a seven-day moving average compared with the prior week there . The state also hit a new high in average daily new deaths, reporting approximately 86 deaths per day over the past seven days as of Monday, according to CNBC’s analysis of data compiled by Hopkins.
The World Health Organization officials said last week that it shouldn’t “be a surprise” to see the global death toll increase again as the pandemic shows signs of acceleration.
“Some of this may be lag, we may see deaths start to climb again because we’ve only really experienced this rapid increase in cases over the last five to six weeks,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program, said.
“I don’t think it should be a surprise if the deaths start to rise again. It will be very unfortunate, but it may happen,” he said.
