US COVID-19 hospital stays beat April high by 17%

New coronavirus cases in the US have exceeded 100,000 daily for 13 days in a row, and currently nearly 70,000 people are being hospitalized for the infection across the country.

With 69,455 people hospitalized on Sunday, U.S. facilities are treating 17 percent more people for COVID-19 than the previous high of 599,499 hospitalizations in April.

In total, more than 11 million people have been infected and 246,854 have died from COVID-19.

On Sunday, the U.S. recorded 133,045 new coronavirus cases and 616 deaths. The average daily death toll hit its highest point since May on Saturday and again on Sunday, according to DailyMail.com analysis of Johns Hopkins University data – but the daily death toll is well below half of its high of more than 2,500 deaths 22 . April.

However, top pandemic modellers at the University of Washington noted last week that the likelihood of a patient dying from coronavirus is decreasing. This trend is attributed to doctors learning how to better care for people with COVID-19.

In the absence of federal action, at least a dozen states and cities – including North Dakota, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Chicago, and Philadelphia – have newly introduced tougher restrictions to slow the “accelerated” spread of the coronavirus, as outlined by enforcing documents sent to states.

Rural counties are currently seeing the highest rate of daily infections, according to Axios, with those whose population is below 10,000 seeing more than 60 new cases per 100,000 people per day.

Across the country, the number of people tested is reaching new heights. More than 1.65 million Americans will be tested on Sunday.

But infections continue to rise, pandemic “fatigue” is widespread, and with colder temperatures and holidays, public health experts are concerned that the crisis will only get worse. An expert from the University of North Carolina, Dr. Ralph Baric, predicted deaths will double over winter.

Some parts of the country have already seen an alarming surge in deaths, including Texas, the state with the second highest death toll in the country. More than 20,000 people have now died there – including 225 in the small border region of El Paso, which relies on mobile morgues and inmate vans to handle the surge in COVID-19 deaths – according to Johns Hopkins University.

Moderna announced early Monday morning that its vaccine could prevent up to 95 percent of infections, according to preliminary data from its large studies.

This second vaccine breakthrough in a week is a ray of hope on the horizon as U.S. officials prepare to take shots of Moderna and Pfizer (who announced their vaccine was 90 percent better than a placebo last week) immediately after the vaccine FDA (Food and Drug Administration) emergency approval for everyone.

Vaccines could finally slow the relentless virus starting as early as next month, but shots will likely not be available to the general public until spring, meaning much of the US is likely to be in a long winter with partial or total lockdowns in many areas becomes .

Daily coronavirus cases topped 100,000 for the 13th consecutive time on Sunday, according to John Hopkins University. More than 11 million Americans are now infected and nearly 70,000 are being hospitalized

Although the death toll approaches 250,000, daily coronavirus deaths remain relatively stable, with 616 deaths on Sunday

Nationwide hospital stays, with 69,455 Americans in hospitals as of Sunday, exceeded the high from April earlier (blue graph). Daily deaths have increased slightly on average (gray), but the overall death rate remains stable at less than one percent

Some of the states that have been the most reluctant to impose restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus are already forced to change course.

North Dakota has been the top hotspot for coronavirus cases per capita for weeks. On Saturday, 935 new infections were reported in the state, where nearly 20 percent of all people tested for COVID-19 get positive results on average.

More than 730 people have died of COVID-19 in the state.

Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican, has firmly refused to place restrictions on the movement of its residents or the operating capacity of businesses, despite North Dakota having the strongest increase in coronavirus cases in the country.

On Friday, he finally changed course and issued a nationwide mask mandate requiring all citizens to wear masks both in public facilities and outdoors where social distancing is not possible.

Governor Burgum has so far emphasized the need for “light touch” with the government and has insisted that it is up to individuals to protect themselves and others.

But on Friday he admitted in a video announcement that our situation has changed and that we have to change with it.

The change was motivated by the massive influx of coronavirus patients who threatened to overwhelm North Dakota hospitals and their staff.

Huge rows of cars waited for coronavirus tests over the weekend in Miami, Florida

Hundreds of people lined up in Queens, New York Monday morning to be tested for COVID-19 (left). More than 5,000 people were tested for coronavirus in Washington, DC, on Sunday, and thousands more were waiting to be swabbed on Monday (right).

Only 10 percent of occupied hospital beds in the state are currently available, according to the health department.

In a press release announcing the restrictions, which will remain in place through December 13, Governor Berman said the state’s doctors and nurses “need our help, and they need it now.”

In neighboring South Dakota, ER nurse Jodi Doering told the story CNN Many of their patients still deny the pandemic.

They “don’t want to believe that Covid is real,” she told the network.

“Your last dying words are,” This can’t happen. It’s not real. “And when they … confront their families, they are full of anger and hatred.”

South Dakota Governor Christi Noem, a Republican, has never asked companies to cut their capacities and has not given any mask mandates in her state.

1,298 new cases were reported in South Dakota on Friday. Another 1,100 were recorded on Saturday. So far 644 people have died there and 533 are currently in hospital. More than 18 percent of those tested in South Dakota on Saturday were positive for the virus.

1,298 new cases were reported in South Dakota on Friday. Another 1,100 were recorded on Saturday. So far 644 people have died there and 533 are currently in hospital.

More than 4,000 new cases were identified in Iowa on Sunday for the ninth consecutive year. Nearly 1,300 people across the country are being hospitalized for coronavirus

Officials in nearby states like Iowa and Nebraska have been watching closely as the Dakotas pandemic unfolds as a potential signal of what could happen in their states.

So far, Iowa has also been resistant to muscle tension to slow the spread of the virus.

Last week, Governor Kim Reynolds issued a new requirement that masks be worn at indoor events with more than 25 people or at outdoor gatherings with 100 or more people. However, ordering comes with many restrictions: schools are completely exempt, as are bars and restaurants, as long as they can socially distance customers.

It can be too late. Ventilator use hit a record high on Sunday with 115 COVID-19 patients on the respirators as more than 4,000 new cases were identified in Iowa for the ninth straight day.

Nearly 1,300 people across the country are being hospitalized for coronavirus.

The pattern repeats itself in nearly every state in the Midwest: cases and then hospitalizations increase, while lawmakers and leaders disagree on whether to prioritize slowing the spread or keep business open.

Wisconsin currently has an average of more new coronavirus cases per day than New York City when it was the global epicenter of the pandemic this spring.

More than 312,000 people in the state are now infected with coronavirus and over 6,000 tested positive for the virus on Saturday alone.

On Monday, the state reported that its hospitals are 90 percent full.

Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, has been at odds with conservative lawmakers in his state for months. He issued a mask mandate in July after his stay at home order was dismissed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in May.

El Paso County, Texas has been forced to set up mobile morgues and enlist the help of inmates to move the bodies of COVID-19 victims to these cold stores

El Paso County detainees help move bodies in refrigerated trailers outside the medical examiner’s office, located next to an El Paso, Texas cemetery on Saturday amid a spate of COVID-19 deaths

With another 89 deaths on Sunday, Texas now has the second highest COVID-19 death toll of any state (after New York).

The same court hears arguments about the mask mandate on Monday, as local lawmakers claim Evers’ order is an unconstitutional transgression of power.

A similar political drama about masks and other restrictions is unfolding further south in El Paso, Texas.

The border district only has 839,238 residents and reported 1,550 new coronavirus cases yesterday alone.

There are at least 33,935 active cases – an all-time high – and 1,111 are being hospitalized. A little less than a third of these patients are in intensive care units.

In total, nearly 75,000 people in El Paso County are infected, which is about nine percent of the total population.

Several mobile morgues and at least 60 Air Force medics had to be dispatched to El Paso, and a nurse, Lawanna Rivers, said in a tearful Facebook live video that the university hospital had sent some of the sickest patients to a room it is called “The Pit” designated to die because they had so little chance of survival and the hospital was understaffed.

Inmates from local prisons have also been recruited to bring corpses of COVID-19 patients to morgues.

Wyoming hospital stays hit a record high of 202 on Sunday as the sparsely populated state continues to see soaring infection rates

District Judge Ricardo Samaniego attempted to close non-essential stores on October 29, but the order was again thrown out by a state appeals court on Friday.

Overall, Texas is the first state in the United States to have more than a million coronavirus cases.

Other parts of the country – especially those that were previously burned – are trying to jump into the winter tide by stepping up testing and introducing new restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus or reintroducing previous measures.

Long lines of cars meandered around coronavirus test sites in Miami over the weekend.

New York City is about to close schools again, and both New York State and New Jersey have imposed curfews at 10 p.m.

Cities like Denver, Chicago and Philadelphia have taken tighter measures than their states of Colorado, Illinois and Pennsylvania to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which is fastest in densely populated urban areas.

Philadelphia will close all museums, gyms and restaurants from Friday until January 1, 2021.

On Friday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced a two-week “freeze” that will allow only take-out restaurants and bars and close gyms, zoos and museums where businesses whose employees can work from home will be closed to be prompted. It also limits church services to 25 people indoors or 50 people outdoors, and limits grocery and retail store capacity to 75 percent.

Washington also reinstated restrictions on businesses and gatherings on Sunday. Governor Jay Inslee warned, “This spike puts us in a more dangerous position than we did in March.”

The state recorded more than 200 cases a day over the weekend and saw the average daily infections double in the past two weeks.

California is pulling the “emergency brake” on its reopening plan, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday after the average daily new cases there rose 89.7 percent compared to the daily infections that had occurred two weeks earlier.

The state has taken a “tiered” approach to reopening and now reclosing. Last week, approximately 22 percent of California’s counties were in the strictest purple category.

This week, more than 70 percent of counties moved into the most at risk category, meaning 94 percent of Californians live in areas with positive coronavirus test positivity rates above eight percent.

Starting Tuesday, most non-essential indoor businesses will have to close.

Although coronavirus can spread fastest in populous areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, it has become an especially severe burden for rural America.

According to an Axios analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University, counties with fewer than 10,000 residents have the highest rate of new daily coronavirus infections per capita in any county of any size.

These rural counties, designated “non-core areas” by the National Center for Health Statistics and the US Census Bureau, have an average of 60.4 new cases per 100,000 population, while 35.4 per 100,000 people living in large central metropolitan areas are diagnosed in a day .

As a result, the national infection rate appeared to be increasing more slowly, but hospital systems are now more at risk than they were during the US pandemic’s first spring summit.

Rural areas have fewer beds to begin with, which means they can quickly become overwhelmed, like El Paso, Texas did. This means that even if the absolute number of new cases and hospital admissions remains small, facilities may run out of space and staff to treat patients and people may die faster than space and can be recovered in small local morgues.

“PATIENTS COME IN AND COME OUT ONLY IN A BODY POCKET”: EL PASO NURSE DESCRIBES “THE PIT” WHERE COVID PATIENTS ARE SENT TO DIE WHEN TEXAS INMATES SIGNS UP TO MOVE BODY AT 2 USD AN HOUR TOMORROW

A nurse in El Paso, Texas, reported on the “dire” conditions in the city’s hospitals as the state grapples with one of the worst coronavirus spikes in the United States and inmates are brought in to bring the dead in morgues.

Registered nurse Lawanna Rivers went on Facebook to describe her time at the University Hospital in El Paso, where she claims patients were taken to a room called The Pit and only received three rounds of CPR before they were pronounced dead.

In a video posted on Facebook on November 7th, she said, “On my first day of orientation, I was told that all patients who go into the pit come out only in a body bag. I saw a lot of people die who I thought shouldn’t have died.

“The policy of this hospital was that they only got three rounds of CPR, which took only six minutes. Of all the codes we had, there wasn’t a single patient who made it.”

Her shocking testimony came when pictures taken Saturday showed criminals in PPE equipment helping the El Paso County’s medical examiner’s office move the dead to refrigerated trucks as the death toll that threatened to overwhelm the state rose .

A spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to The Texas Tribune that up to eight inmates have volunteered to do the work for $ 2 an hour. Inmates are usually not paid for their community work, but reportedly “refused to work unless they were compensated,” the spokesman confirmed.

Rivers added, “The morgue was so full of bodies that they ran out of space. As soon as the doors to the pit opened, they rolled into a corpse that was already in a pocket.

‘[They] lined up with the rest of our living patients because they had to keep the body there because the morgue ran out of space. They had to bring freezer trucks because there are so many bodies.

“The facility I am in has surpassed that in New York. I have never experienced and have no words for what I just experienced in El Paso, Texas. ‘

Scroll down for video

Pictures taken on Saturday show criminals in PPE gear helping the El Paso County medical examiner’s office move the dead to refrigerated trucks as the death toll rises and threatens to overwhelm the state

Last week officials in El Paso announced plans to add four additional morgue tags, bringing the total there to 10