Several states have seen an uptick in coronavirus hospitalization rates, a possible sign of a worrying trend.
“We’re now starting to see, for example, in our Texas Medical Center, an increase in hospitalizations, particularly in ICU admissions,” said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health in Texas.
Epidemiologists, however, are more concerned about rates of people who are sick enough to merit going to intensive care units than they are about reported cases of the virus, which can rise based on an increase in testing. Hospitalization rates, Dr. Shah said, provide the most complete picture of how states are faring in the fight against the coronavirus.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported Monday that over 1,900 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized, more than the number of patients hospitalized on May 1 when Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the state’s stay-at-home order. The number of new COVID-19 hospitalizations has remained high since mid-May because of what Dr. Shah calls a “layering of risk.” After May 1, Texans began leaving their homes for Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, and graduation activities.
“As all these activities are happening, you’re layering on top of each other. From each of those activities’ start dates, you generally have a few weeks after that when, because of the incubation period, you start to see an increase of cases, which then moves to increase in hospitalizations or what have you. And that’s what concerns us,” Dr. Shah said.
Florida has also seen an increase in COVID-19 hospitalization rates since Gov. Ron DeSantis began reopening the state in early May. According to the COVID Tracking Project, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida has reached 11,215 since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and the rate is increasing daily. As of Friday, 11,066 people were hospitalized for the coronavirus, a jump from the count on June 1 of 10,494.
Arizona reached a milestone when the state health department announced on June 1 that 1,009 coronavirus patients were in hospitals. By Thursday, 1,234 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized. The Arizona health department reported Monday that there are currently over 3,300 COVID-19 patients in hospitals.
“You see, on the one hand, a real interest in opening things back up,” Dr. Shah said. “On the other hand, you don’t have all the data points and metrics because they’re inconsistent. And then you also have that mixing of people as you add new activities, and putting that all together is what gives you the layering of risk.”
The United States has seen more than 1.9 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 111,000 deaths.
The S&P 500 erased its losses for the year at Monday’s closing bell, making up for widespread economic damage caused by shutdowns aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. The index jumped 38.46 points, or 1.2%, to close at 3,232.39, a level not seen since the end of February. The index has rebounded roughly 47% from its low in March.
The National Bureau of Economic Research announced Monday that a recession began in February of this year, marking the end of the longest period of economic growth in history.
“The unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warrants the designation of this episode as a recession, even if it turns out to be briefer than earlier contractions,” the bureau said in its report Monday.
New York City, the coronavirus epicenter for months, began reopening Monday after more than eight weeks under strict lockdown. Construction and manufacturing can resume, and retail stores can offer in-store and curbside pickup, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the World Health Organization’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said that people with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 are not the driving force behind the spread of the coronavirus, causing confusion about one of the aspects of the virus thought to make it most dangerous. She said contact tracing of those who tested positive found that very few asymptomatic carriers gave the virus to others.
President Trump is planning to restart his MAGA rallies in the next two weeks, Politico reported Monday. Trump has not been able to hold campaign rallies since March due to the pandemic but has visited several swing states during the crisis, using those visits to speak to voters. His advisers are still determining where to hold the first in-person events, which will likely garner blowback from his opponents.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene called racism “a public health crisis” Monday in response to the protests following the death of George Floyd. In a statement, the agency said that Floyd’s death “is part of the system of racism that permits police brutality, unjust policing and mass incarceration.” It says the New York City Department of Health is “committed to addressing structural racism as a social determinant of health.” The statement did not address the possibility of increased transmission of the coronavirus, an overriding concern for the city in past weeks.
Fewer people are worried about their health coverage in May than they were before the height of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new UChicago Harris/AP-NORC survey. Despite an estimated 27 million people losing health coverage in the last three months, only 19% of respondents were concerned about losing their coverage. That’s down from 28% in February.
Infectious disease outbreak experts at the Imperial College London said Monday that nationwide lockdowns across Europe prevented about 3 million deaths by the beginning of May and helped avoid 470,000 deaths in the United Kingdom alone, the Guardian reported. The team from the Imperial College also found that lockdowns in several European countries lowered the virus reproduction rate to below one, meaning that, on average, each infected person transmits the infection to less than one other person.
The U.K. reported its lowest daily death toll since March on Monday, down from 204 deaths on Saturday to 77 on Sunday and 55 reported Monday.
New Zealand will lift social distancing requirements early Tuesday morning, as the country has reported zero active coronavirus cases. The country also saw 17 consecutive days without new coronavirus infections, 12 days since the last new coronavirus hospital admission, and 40 days since the last case of community transmission. Businesses and schools will reopen, but international travel will still be banned in order to avoid a second coronavirus outbreak.
“Our goal was to move out the other side as quickly and as safely as we could. We now have a head start on our economic recovery,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a Monday press briefing, adding later that she “did a little dance” when she found out that it was safe to reopen.
