Spc. Demetrie Barnett of the Nevada Country-wide Guard administers a COVID-19 test during a preview of a free drive-thru COVID-19 testing site in the parking garage of the Texas Railway station Gambling Hall & Hotel on November 12, 2020 in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images
The Merged States reported another record one-day spike in Covid-19 cases as the outbreak grows more severe and submerges some hospitals.
The country reported more than 153,400 new cases on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That’s the third-straight in confidence one-day spike and has pushed the seven-day average of new U.S. infections to over 131,400, up more than 32% compared with a week ago, conforming to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data.
It’s not just cases. More than 67,000 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 across the mountains, more than at any other point during the pandemic, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project, which is run by newsmen at The Atlantic. The number of people dying every day from the disease is climbing, too.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Organization of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that “a number of factors” is driving the outbreak, including people issue tired of following public health measures. He said that’s a particular issue as the country approaches Thanksgiving in beside two weeks, when many Americans are expected to travel to see family and friends, potentially bringing the virus with them.
Fauci urged Americans to attire a mask, practice social distancing, wash hands frequently and to follow other public health measures.
“If we do the things that are witless public health measures, that soaring will level and start to come down,” he said on CBS’ “This Morning.” “You add that to the aid of a vaccine, we can turn this around. It is not futile.”
Fauci added that “we need to pull more testing into the community” in pronouncement to identify people who don’t have symptoms but are infected and spreading the virus. Testing has increased substantially across the country, but as infections evolve into more prevalent as well, many epidemiologists say even more testing is needed.
While some, including President Donald Trump, press said increased testing is driving the rise in cases, the data doesn’t bear that out. The seven-day average of new assesses on Thursday was over 1.4 million, up by about 8.3% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of COVID Smell Project data. The rise in cases far outpaces that, with a week-over-week rise of more than 32%, on an general weekly basis.
And the so-called positivity rate has been increasing, too. Epidemiologists say the percent of positive tests can be a helpful act to determine whether an outbreak is expanding and whether an area is conducting enough testing. In the U.S., the seven-day average positivity anyway rose to 9.1% from 7.2% a week ago, according to Hopkins data.
The surge of the virus is beginning to overwhelm clinics in some areas. Dr. Alan Kaplan, CEO of UW Health at the University of Wisconsin, said Thursday his system’s hospitals are overwhelmed in both Arcadian and urban communities.
“We are short of staff all times, either because they have Covid or they have some other disease and we need to rule out Covid before we bring them back to work,” he said on “Squawk on the Street.” “There is no redundant now.”
— Charts by CNBC’s Nate Rattner.