Nine states are seeing spikes in the number of people that have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since Memorial Day as Arizona’s health department told hospitals to activate coronavirus emergency plans to prepare for a surge in new cases.
The U.S. surpassed two million coronavirus cases today.
Infections are rising in a total of 21 states, as governments ease restrictions and Americans try to return to their routines.
Arizona, Texas, North Carolina and Utah are among those that have seen record spikes in hospitalizations since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in mid-March.
With occupancy in its intensive care units approaching capacity, Arizona is telling hospitals to activate emergency plans.
Arizona tourist sites were packed for Memorial Day weekend.
Lake Havasu City, a popular vacation destination, was full.
South Carolina, parts of California, Oregon, Arkansas and Mississippi have also seen an uptick in the number of people being hospitalized.
The increase in hospitalizations in those nine states has occurred as states reopened and large gatherings were held across the country over the Memorial Day weekend.
All of those states, apart from Mississippi, are now virus hotspots after also seeing increases in the number of infections in the past week.
The uptick, which could lead authorities to reimpose or tighten public health restrictions, complicates efforts to reopen the economy that has been devastated by stay-at-home orders that were in place across much of the US.
More than 112,000 Americans have now died from coronavirus and 1.9 million have been infected in the past three months.
As the pandemic’s grim numbers continue to climb, President Trump and lawmakers in both parties are exhibiting their usual short attention span, alarming public health experts who worry that a second wave of infections could deliver a punch more brutal than the first while the nation’s political leaders are looking the other way.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the government’s top experts on infectious diseases, yet he said on June 1 that he hadn’t spoken to Trump since May 18.
There are no more daily coronavirus briefings from the White House, and the administration’s coronavirus task force is no longer meeting every day.
Trump is planning to restart MAGA rallies this month, and the Republicans are moving their convention out of Charlotte because the Democratic governor of North Carolina resisted their demands for a mass gathering without masks or social distancing.
It appears health risks are not a top priority for the Trump campaign or national Republican Party.
Trump will return to the campaign trail on June 19 with a rally in Tulsa, Okla., for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced most of the country into quarantine three months ago.
Polls show former Vice President Joe Biden establishing a significant national lead over Trump and the president’s approval ratings plummeting.
Oklahoma, a deep-red state Trump won four years ago by 36 percentage points, began lifting restrictions on businesses on April 24 and moved into Phase 3 of its reopening on June 1, allowing summer camps to open and workplaces to return with full staffing levels.