- The number of new coronavirus cases increased dramatically in the USA on Wednesday, setting new records in some states.
- The total number of new COVID-19 cases for the day appears to have smashed through the previous peak from April.
- Experts warn that lockdown measures may be in order once again in states that may have reopened too soon, allowing new outbreaks to emerge.
The United States continues to be at the center of the novel coronavirus pandemic when it comes to the total number of new cases. While some states were able to get their outbreaks under control, others are registering considerable increases in daily counts that are driving the US’s statistics to new daily records. This isn’t the second wave that experts expect in the fall when COVID-19 will cohabitate with the flu, but a spike of the current wave that has been fueled by careless people who refuse to wear masks as economies reopen across the country.
According to an NBC News tally, the US reported a new single-day record for new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, when it registered 45,557 confirmations. The previous high was on April 26th, according to the same tracking data, when more than 36,000 cases were registered.
The figures don’t quite match other statistics. Johns Hopkins stats did not have data for June 24th at the time of this writing. Johns Hopkins’s statistics, which are widely quoted in media, indicate more than 34,700 new cases for Tuesday, with the previous high registered at over 36,400 cases on April 24th.
Separately, the Coronavirus App has been tracking the coronavirus pandemic from the beginning. According to its data, the US registered 38,651 cases on June 24th, a few hundred shy of the 38,951 cases registered on April 10th. The data disparity can be explained with ease. Different states might report their figures at different times, and some of these websites might tally those numbers on different days.
Even still, the surge in new cases is undeniable and it can’t be attributed to the increase in testing. If anything, the scarcity of tests in previous months has painted an inaccurate picture of the prior peak.
Previous hot spots have largely flattened the curve, including New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. It’s other regions that are now driving the significant uptick in cases. Texas (6,177), Florida (5,511), and California (5,511) all reported record numbers of new infections on Wednesday, according to stats from Worldometers. Notable spikes can also be observed in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, all of them having registered between 1,284 and 1,795 new cases on Wednesday. Alabama, Ohio, Tennesse, and Louisiana each averaged more than 900 new infections.
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the progressions in Florida, Texas, and Arizona are particularly worrisome, warning that lockdown measures may be in order again.
As of Thursday morning, the US has recorded more than 2.463 million cases and over 124,000 deaths (per Coronavirus App data). Worldwide, there were more than 175,000 infections on Wednesday, bringing the total tally to more than 9.553 million. Nearly 490,000 people have died of COVID-19 around the world, and more than 3.914 million cases remain active.
