According to the COVID Tracking Project, hospitalizations from the respiratory illness across the US have increased over the last month. The latest data shows that on Monday, there were more than 37,000 Americans hospitalized due to COVID-19. There has been an average of 56,000 new cases every day over the last week, which is 13% more than last week.
In fact, COVID-19 hospitalizations had increased by at least 5% in 37 states as of Sunday, according to CNBC’s analysis, with Alaska, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and West Virginia all experiencing record highs in average hospitalizations in recent days.
Even though the current average number of new cases is lower than the roughly 70,000 per day the US was reporting earlier during the pandemic, it is still higher than the average of about 30,000 cases per day recorded in September.
Texas, in particular, seems to be on the cusp of another surge, and the state has already confirmed more than 800,000 cases during the pandemic. On Monday alone, there were more than 2,200 new cases.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins this week also upgraded the area’s coronavirus threat level to red - the highest risk status - as infections continue to spike.
The only two areas in the US where hospitalizations are currently declining are in the District of Columbia and Hawaii.
New cases across the US increased in October, with over 57,000 cases in the country on Monday. However, despite the increased number of cases and hospitalizations, the daily death rate has remained relatively constant since October 7.
“What’s concerning here is that it’s only mid-October and there is a long fall and winter,” Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the University of Toronto, told CNBC.
“We are clearly in the second wave in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and we really need to have more control of this infection at the community level. We know exactly what it’s like when health care systems are spread beyond capacity. We saw that in New York City. We saw that in Houston. We saw that in many other parts of the United States,” he added.
Former US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday that the US has tough times ahead.
“We’re going to get through it. We’re probably in the 7th inning of the acute phase of this pandemic right now, but the hardest part is probably ahead,” Gottlieb told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
On October 14, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House coronavirus task force, warned people against attending social gatherings around Thanksgiving, the upcoming US holiday, as COVID-19 cases surge.
“You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering, unless you’re pretty certain that the people that you’re dealing with are not infected,” Fauci told “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell.
