Florida, Arizona and Texas set records for new COVID-19 cases
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Florida, Texas and Arizona set records for new COVID-19 cases, and more than a dozen other states are also reporting big jumps in the number of cases as much of the country reopens after months of quarantine.
Are the governors in the worst-hit states considering another shutdown? Not a chance, if you ask them.
"No, we're not shutting down, you know, we're going to go forward," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday. "You have to have society function."
Never mind that the Sunshine State recorded 2,610 new cases Wednesday -- just below Tuesday's record of 2,783 -- and the death toll rose from 2,993 to 3,018.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he, too, is not considering closing the state down.
NEW RECORD: Texas has set a new record for hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Texas. The state just reported 2,793 lab-confirmed hospitalizations - that is an 11% increase from yesterday's record and now an 85% increase since Memorial Day.
— Jeremy Wallace (@JeremySWallace) June 17, 2020
"We are better prepared to deal with COVID-19 today than we were back in March and April," he said.
So what about the nearly 85 percent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations since Memorial Day, from 1,511 to 2,793?
"There are some explanations for why these numbers are so high," Abbott said. "It could be Memorial Day celebrations. It could be bar settings."
Later Tuesday, the Texas state health department reported 2,622 new cases, plus an additional 1,476 state prison inmates who had previously been diagnosed with the virus.
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Notice about today's #COVID19TX update: https://t.co/ofycOLqWQZ
The 93,206 total reported cases for 6/16 includes 2,622 new cases today and 1,476 previously diagnosed @TDCJ inmates now reported for Anderson (887) and Brazoria (589) counties.
— Texas DSHS (@TexasDSHS) June 16, 2020
In Arizona, state health officials reported 1,827 new coronavirus cases and 20 additional deaths Wednesday. On Tuesday, 2,392 cases were reported.
With the numbers continuing to rise, 700 medical providers sent a signed letter to Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday, warning that the hospitals in the state were in danger of being overwhelmed and pleading with him to mandate the use of masks in public.
"Since the reopening of Arizona's economy, our health risk has drastically increased," their letter states. "The sad fact is that nothing has changed regarding COVID-19 since the Stay at Home Executive Order was put into effect on March 31. Since the Executive Order was lifted, many Arizonans believe something has changed, and it is somehow now safe to resume normal life. Sadly, this is far from the truth."
Ducey has recommended that people wear masks in public to combat the spread of the coronavirus, but he has refused to impose a statewide mandate, leaving it to local mayors to decide whether to penalize people for not wearing them.
"I am in favor of masks," Ducey said during a press conference Wednesday. "I want to see all Arizonans wearing face coverings."
The Ducey administration has also suggested that increased testing may be behind the surge in new cases.
Marcy Flanagan, director of Arizona's Maricopa County Department of Public Health, insisted last week that "these increases are not due just to an increase in testing that is occurring."
State Rep. Kelli Butler, the Democrats' ranking member on Arizona's House Health Committee, echoed Flanagan.
Arizona coronavirus rate skyrockets, has fastest growth rate in U.S.
"While the COVID-19 crisis in Arizona is becoming one of the worst in the world, we've seen Gov. Ducey and his staff spending more time trying to deflect criticism and spar with health experts and reporters than work on actual solutions to mitigate the spread of disease," Butler said. "With President Trump scheduled to visit Arizona next week, I do wonder if the governor is doing more right now to please Trump than keep Arizonans safe."
NBC News has reached out to Ducey's spokesman Patrick Ptak for comment, but has not received a response.
DeSantis, Abbott and Ducey are all Republicans and strong supporters of President Donald Trump, who has taken heat for his administration's slow response to the pandemic.
Trump did not declare a national emergency until March 13. And so far, about 118,000 people in the United States have been killed by the virus.
The president has also been pushing for a quick reopening of the economy. Over the objections of local health officials, Trump intends to hold a rally Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It will be his first since the country was shuttered to combat the coronavirus.
Vice President Mike Pence has praised Oklahoma for being "at the forefront of our efforts to slow the spread." He also made the false claim that Oklahoma under the leadership of Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican and a Trump supporter, has "flattened the curve."
But Oklahoma health officials reported a state-high daily total of 259 cases Tuesday and 76 of those were in Tulsa, the Tulsa World reported.
"Any rational person looking at any large grouping of people would have concerns about this weekend," Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, a Republican, said.
Louisiana is also seeing a recent spike in new COVID-19 cases. Other states where COVID-19 cases continue to be on the rise are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming, along with the commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
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Very concerning, but hey..... lets go stroke Trump's ego at an indoor rally!
Ignore science at your own risk.... AND the risk of others!
Ignore science at your own risk.... AND the risk of others!
If you're so terrified of getting infected, make sure you wear a mask and socially distance yourself from others.
Meanwhile, for a vast majority of the population, life has to go on...you know, like making a living and providing for your family.
There is not real data on what is causing the spikes, just more articles designed to stoke the fires of fear and panic.
As for the so called science, it's been all over the place, so who do you believe? Which "expert" is giving you the truth?
Further shutdowns and quarantines are out of the question, so the fearful among us need to take the necessary precautions and deal with it.
Which can happen safely and smartly.
There is, but they don't share that on Fox News and OANN and alt+right blog holes.
The science has not been all over the place. Talking heads may be all over the place - but the science has been steadily gathering more and more data and adjusting findings as it always does.
If EVERYONE takes precautions, further shutdowns and quarantines won't be necessary. That means leadership from the top down to impress upon the idiots it isn't political to social distance and wear a mask in public.
There you go again with that driving sense of curiosity Greg......
I'm still betting you think this virus is a hoax designed to hurt the dipshit in chief occupying the WH.
And for the record, for the science deniers, no expert advice is needed in this matter, just the application of what we learned in 8th grade health class....
I've actually heard people say the virus is a hoax. That kind of mentality is the same kind shared by conspiracy theorists and flat earthers-outright delusional.
To coin a phrase...... "I see delusional people everywhere, and they don't know they are delusional....!"
Happy Friday Gordy!
So true. Hope you have a good weekend Fly
Weird, my wife and I have been doing that for a couple months now while wearing a mask and keeping our distance. Strange, but you really can do both in most circumstances.
Lol oh no they aren't. Let hospitals reach max capacity and they are inevitable.
Like all the dead people died just to hurt Trump. I once saw a gravestone that said....I TOLD YOU I WAS SICK.
What's really sad is not just that some people ignore the science, but some are downright hostile towards science. Science has done more for humanity than anything else.
This on top of the TSA Whistleblower isn't good news for Trump. But hey nothing a campaign rally and a bucket of KFC won't fix.
What happened with a TSA WB?
Florida yesterday broke it's two-day old record with 3207 new cases.
That's what happens when people are being stupid and selfish.
You know, even if all a mask did was provide some peace of mind for the people you will be crossing paths with and/or interacting with, then the whole thing would still be a net positive.
Curiously, the spiking states also happen to be the states that either loosened or never even bothered adopting proper pandemic precautions. Which by and large also happen to be red.
The mask is also an ever-present reminder of things we all should be doing to try and limit transmission...... washing hands, social distancing... We need to be mindful that things have changed as we go about our lives and adapt to the new realities....
One of man's greatest abilities is to adapt to change. Do I like social distancing and wearing a mask, hell no but I do it because I need to not because I want to. Adaptability is key to survival, Non adaptability lessens the odds.
North Carolina had right at 1300 yesterday.....................out of 20,000 tests (which is what they are running daily). The number of tests being conducted are the main reason these get publicized.
The number of tests conducted isn't really all that important. I mean it is important in order to track where the virus is and is spreading. What really matters is what percentage of them are coming back positive. If you are issuing more and more tests, and that percentage is increasing (which is the case in many areas) then the number of tests conducted is not the cause of the increase in case numbers.
If Ebeneezer Scrooge were around, he would say that it's good to reduce the excess population. Seems like there are a lot of Americans who are trying to do that.
If any of them take the virus home due to their selfishness and bs entitlement and someone dies, they should be prosecuted for reckless endangerment.
You don't have enough jails or prisons to house the perpetrators.
Hey now, this is America, if there is one thing we are good at it is building prisons and putting people in them.
Yeah, but they're already full. Well, America could rebuild the Japanese-American concentration camps used during WW2.
Hah, full prisons, we scoff at the very idea. More are already being built...
America excels in many ways, and this is one of them:
The United States Has The Largest Prison Population In The World — And It’s Growing
Perhaps that is more of a product of good police work and good prosecutions.
Some countries may have low imprisonment rates because they have harsher penalties. You know, like chopping someone's hands off if they steal something.
You also don't need to imprison people you kill. Look at China as a fine example of that.
America.... FUCK YEAH!!!!!
Concentration camps?
Come on, man. You know better--or could look it up.
How many German concentration camps had schools, post offices, crops and cattle?
Look, I am in no way condoning what the US did with the Japanese-Americans, but comparing them to concentration camps is w-a-a-y too long of a stretch for rational people.
And US law prevents such things from occurring again.
Tit for Tat. Neither are the Uyghur reeducation and vocational camps.
I have never made any comparisons involving those places and Nazi concentration camps.
Tit for tat? What the hell?
The Army has plenty of GP larges. Just as they were used in AZ to house prisoners, they can be used for this.
No you didn't, the government you support did..
When I was a teenager I used to go to a summer resort with my parents in the Muskoka Lakes area of Ontario that had been converted from a WW2 concentration camp for German officer prisoners. They were treated so well there that I don't think there was ever an escape attempt, and many of them stayed in the area after the war and married local citizens. There was still a guard tower standing there.
So the hell what? Governments everywhere do things I don't support. Of course in general I support the US Government, but that damn sure doesn't mean I like everything it does and don't support everything it does.
now, what does THAT have to do with me saying one word about those great Chinese camps?
Why the deflection?
This may prove helpful.
Concentration camp, internment centre for political prisoners and members of national or minority groups who are confined for reasons of state security, exploitation, or punishment, usually by executive decree or military order.