Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Nearly 60,000 Cases In One Day: U.S. Sets Another Daily COVID-19 Record
As President Trump continued to press for a broader reopening of the United States, the country set another record for new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, with more than 59,400 infections announced, according to a New York Times database. It was the fifth national record set in nine days. (7/8)
It took less than a month for the national case count to rise to that level from 2 million, on June 11. With cases and hospitalizations spiking in states including Arizona, California, Florida and Texas, some public health officials have predicted the pace could further intensify and perhaps reach 100,000 new cases a day if the virus isn't controlled. (7/8)
As the United States surpasses 3 million coronavirus infections, forecasters are updating their models to account for the recent resurgence and reaching a grim consensus: the next few months are going to be bad. The national death toll is now expected eclipse 200,000 by Election Day, according to the latest models. (Goldberg and Cancryn, 7/8)
Florida has emerged as a global epicenter of the latest coronavirus surge, raising questions about the safety of major events that relocated to the state. As coronavirus cases surged throughout much of the Northeast in April and May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared victory. Florida was one of the last states to impose a stay-at-home order, and one of the first to reopen. (Weixel, 7/8)
With the daily number of new coronavirus infections in Texas now exceeding that of most other states, experts say Texas has become a hot spot of the global pandemic and that more aggressive measures are needed to slow the virus’ spread. Texas’ new confirmed cases of the coronavirus now make up around 14% of the U.S. total — measured by a seven-day average — a significantly higher proportion than its 9% share of the nation’s population. Since July 1, the U.S. has reported 358,027 new infections. Of those, 50,599 were in Texas. (Champagne, Walters and Cai, 7/8)
Global coronavirus cases exceeded 12 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as evidence mounts of the airborne spread of the disease that has killed more than half a million people in seven months. (Issa, 7/8)
