US cases of virus hit 2-month high

The US saw a resurgence of novel coronavirus cases in many states on Wednesday, hitting a total of 35,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University — the highest level in two months and now back to where they were at the peak of the outbreak.

Several states — including Texas, California, Arizona, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma — broke single-day records Tuesday or Wednesday, and North Carolina and South Carolina also hit new highs in hospitalizations.

The continuing rise in cases dampened expectations of an economic recovery on Wall Street on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 700 points for a drop of 2.7 percent. The S&P 500 fell 2.6 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite posted its first decline in nine sessions, sliding 2.2 percent. It was the worst day for the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq since June 11.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for more than 120,000 US deaths — the highest death toll in the world — and more than 2.3 million confirmed cases nationwide. On Wednesday, a University of Washington computer model of the outbreak that often has been cited by the White House projected nearly 180,000 deaths by Oct 1.

On Wednesday, a New York Times/Siena College poll of registered voters showed former vice-president Joe Biden with a 14-percentage point lead over President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Nearly three-fifths of respondents in the poll disapproved of Trump's handling of the pandemic. By a 21-point margin, respondents said the federal government should prioritize containing the coronavirus, even if it hurts the economy.

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced on Wednesday that people arriving from states with high virus rates must self-quarantine for 14 days.

"We have to make sure the virus doesn't come in on a plane again," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference. "Learned that lesson. Been there, done that."

In March, Rhode Island police stopped vehicles with New York license plates, and Florida directed all travelers from the tri-state area to isolate or quarantine for two weeks.

As of Wednesday, the quarantine applies to Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas. They are states that reopened early and where health officials say residents didn't follow guidelines, including social distancing and wearing face masks.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday urged residents to stay home after the state reported more than 5,000 cases, then its largest single-day total yet.

On Wednesday, he said in a television interview that more than 5,000 more people had tested positive and more than 4,000 were hospitalized. There is a "massive outbreak of COVID-19 across the state of Texas today", Abbott said.

Cases surged in the Houston area. Intensive-care units at the city's hospitals are now filled to 97 percent of capacity, Mayor Sylvester Turner told the City Council on Wednesday, with COVID-19 patients accounting for more than one-quarter of all patients in intensive care.

"People got complacent," said Dr Marc Boom, CEO of the Houston Methodist hospital system. "And it's coming back and biting us, quite frankly."

California Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the state now has rising coronavirus cases and hospitalizations and rising positive test rates, with a record number of confirmed cases — 7,149 — overnight. That broke the previously reported high of 5,000 new cases.

In Arizona, emergency rooms reported seeing about 1,200 suspected COVID-19 patients a day. Dr Joseph Gerald, a University of Arizona public health policy professor, said, "We are in deep trouble,'' and urged the state to impose new restrictions on businesses, but Governor Doug Ducey has refused.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced on Wednesday that the state would pause reopening for three weeks and require face masks after the state on Tuesday reported its highest number of hospitalizations.

In Washington state, cases are again trending upward, and the governor said residents would have to start wearing masks in public.

Florida saw a record 5,508 new cases Wednesday. Governor Ron DeSantis has refused to order mask-wearing in public, saying "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar".

But Pinellas and Palm Beach counties on Tuesday voted to mandate wearing masks outdoors starting Wednesday. Pinellas includes Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.

Florida's state surgeon general has told hospitals he no longer wants them to report the number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs.

Dr Scott Rivkees said he wants hospitals to report only patients receiving what he described as an "intensive level of care", which remains undefined, the News Service of Florida reported Monday.

Dr Larry Bush, an infectious disease specialist at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Palm Beach, said the state, in changing ICU reporting requirements, is "trying to make it look less severe".

DeSantis, at a news conference in Orlando on Tuesday, said that the state just wanted to get a truer picture of serious COVID-19 cases in the hospital ICUs.

"Some of the hospitals had told us they were just using their ICU wing as their COVID wing," he said. "The surgeon general just wanted to know, 'OK, if you are doing that, how many (serious cases) are actually there or not?"

Bush said that there are patients in ICU beds who aren't required to be there but are in them because immediate-care beds are filled up with COVID-19 patients. He also said COVID-19 patients on ventilators are staying in ICU beds for weeks.

The 50th edition of the New York City Marathon, the world's largest, which had been scheduled for November, was canceled because of the pandemic, officials announced Wednesday.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that the city might have to lay off or furlough 22,000 municipal workers this fall because the coronavirus has led to a shortfall of as much as $9 billion in tax revenue.

He said he was talking with municipal labor unions in the hope of finding savings that would forestall layoffs from a city workforce that numbered 326,000 at the end of 2019.