Texas and Other States Report Record Covid-19 Infections

Moving into mid-July it is clear that America's response to the Covid-19 pandemic on the national front has been an unmitigated disaster.  There was never a coordinated national response and states are all over the map in their handling of the pandemic. Not surprisingly, leading the nation in the current catastrophe are Florida and Texas whose Republican governors rushed to reopen economic activity at the urging of the foul occupant of the White House who cares nothing about how many will dies, only his reelection chances. Adding to the catastrophe too are those who refuse to wear masks - claiming it infringes on their personal liberty - and care nothing about infecting others. Meanwhile, Americans are not welcomed in Europe, and the USA's neighboring countries.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the latest numbers:

New coronavirus cases reached record highs in states across the country Saturday, even as weekly testing plateaued nationwide, offering more stark evidence that the United States was failing to control new waves of infection and death.

Nine states in nearly every major region of the country reported record new single-day caseloads on Saturday: South Carolina, Texas, Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Idaho, Wisconsin, Oregon and Hawaii. Six of those states, along with 10 others, registered new seven-day average case highs, . . .

Saturday also marked the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that multiple states reported more than 10,000 cases in a day, with Texas tallying a record 10,351 and Florida reporting 10,360.

In total, there were 62,715 new infections on Saturday, an increase of 11,564 from the same day last week. The single-day death toll was 724, compared with 289 a week ago.

Seven-day averages for new coronavirus-related deaths reached record levels in Arizona, California, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, according to The Post’s analysis. And average daily deaths were up more at least 40 percent in more than a third of U.S. states.

Testing, meanwhile, has tapered off nationwide, a sign that the surge in infections was the result of the virus’s accelerating spread in many places.