California, Texas, and Florida each reported record-high new coronavirus deaths in a single day.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that 149 people had died due to COVID-19 in just 24 hours. The Thursday death count surpassed a previous record set in April of 115 deaths at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. Over 6,700 people have died since March.
In Texas, state health officials reported 105 new COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, the first time that the daily death toll for the coronavirus reached triple digits, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Thursday’s single-day increase set the third consecutive record following Wednesday’s 98 new deaths and Tuesday’s 60 deaths. So far, 2,918 people have died.
Florida also set the record for the first daily death toll to reach triple digits with 120 new deaths Thursday. The seven-day rolling averages of deaths in Florida remained relatively stable through the last two weeks in June but has risen consistently since the beginning of July.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that society must “move forward” despite a worsening coronavirus outbreak that has led to more than 232,700 cases. DeSantis made similar statements during his Monday press briefing, saying that it is possible to keep society moving while keeping people safe.
“We need our society to function,” he said Thursday at a Jacksonville press briefing. “We need our society to continue to move forward.”
As in Florida, the seven-day rolling average of deaths in Texas ticked up in the last week of June. For most of June, the average hovered around 25. On June 27, the average hit 30 and has been rising since. By Wednesday, the average hit a record high of 60 deaths.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned earlier in the week of a continued rise in new deaths due to COVID-19 through July, especially as numbers of new hospitalizations in Texas continue to climb.
“My concern is that we may see greater fatalities going forward as we go into the middle part of July,” Abbott said, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Nearly 9,700 people in Texas are currently in hospitals, an increase of 79 hospitalizations from Wednesday’s total, and a record high for the 11th consecutive day.
Congressional Republicans and White House officials are weighing proposals to lower the income threshold to $40,000 for eligibility for a second stimulus check. President Trump has said that he supports a second round of direct payments, but Senate Republicans have been slower to warm up to the idea.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that the Trump administration is in favor of extending the pandemic unemployment benefit boost, which expires at the end of July, but would lower the amount from $600. He did not say how much the unemployment payout would be but said, “You can assume that it will be no more than 100%” of a worker’s usual pay.
“So, yes, we want to incentivize people to go back to work,” Mnuchin said. “Enhanced unemployment is intended for people who don’t have jobs. … We will not be doing it in the same way.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday that states experiencing severe coronavirus outbreaks “should seriously look at shutting down.”
“Some states, it gets frustrating, because, not to name any states, but some states admittedly opened up too early and too quickly, so that was something that probably should not have happened that led to this,” Fauci told the Wall Street Journal.
The World Health Organization warned Thursday that the coronavirus could be spread through the air, a theory that the organization has long dismissed, the Associated Press reported. Over 200 scientists urged the WHO to acknowledge proof that the virus is airborne, writing in the academic journal Clinical Infectious Diseases that studies have shown “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air.”
A journalist who attended two briefings at the White House this week has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a memo from the White House Correspondents’ Association. WHCA President Jonathan Karl said the reporter is “asymptomatic” and had worn a mask while on the White House complex.
“We are contacting those who the individual recalled being in closer contact,” Karl said.
