Data tracked by The Washington Post shows that seven states — Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas — are reporting record highs for current coronavirus hospitalizations.
As of Tuesday, there are 3,868 people in California hospitalized with coronavirus, a 5.9 percent increase over the pervious peak bed usage on April 29. Of those patients, nearly 1,200 are in intensive care units. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the state is not facing a hospital bed shortage.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) told KBTX on Tuesday said there are concerns over the hospitalization rate being at at an all-time high in the state, and Texans need to "really comprehend the magnitude of the challenge we're dealing with." He said the state will increase testing and may soon announce new measures to combat the coronavirus, but in the meantime, urged residents not to go out unless necessary.
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"We want to make sure that everyone reinforces the best safe practices of wearing a mask, hand sanitization, maintaining safe distance, but importantly, because the spread is so rampant right now, there's never a reason for you to have to leave your home," he said.
On Tuesday, California and Texas each reported more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases over a 24-hour period, records for both states. More than 800 COVID-19 deaths were also reported in the United States on Tuesday, the first time the number of fatalities has gone up since June 7, the Post reports. The U.S. has more than 2.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases, with at least 119,000 deaths.
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