US Breaches Grim 3-Million Mark In COVID-19 Infections, Death Toll Predicted To Reach 208,000 By November

A tally from Johns Hopkins Univerity has indicated that the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. has breached the 3-million mark in new infections with hospitals reporting an impending shortage of hospital beds.

According to a report, an alarming surge of daily new cases from at least 24 states in the U.S. has resulted in record-breaking numbers for their daily COVID-19 cases. The virus has infected more than 3,193,554 people nationwide while its death toll has climbed to 135,388.

Concerned authorities are hinting that the surge of infections in the past two weeks may have been due to the country's failed response to the pandemic.

States such as Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma broke previous record highs in daily cases with the highest numbers occurring in Texas and California.

Texas which is the second-largest state in the U.S. reported that the number of admitted COVID-19 patients has nearly tripled in the past two weeks.

With hospitals reaching full capacity and doctors suffering from burnout and overwork, the military plans to deploy its medical personnel to San-Antonio, the seventh-most populous city in the U.S.

Similarly, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that it will be adding short-term "surge" testing sites to cater to the rising demand for COVID-19 screenings. Hard-hit areas such as Florida, Louisiana and Texas will purportedly be prioritized.

One of these testing sites situated in Houston saw residents that have either camped out or waited in their cars close to the United Memorial Medical Center to get tested.

Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration said that 48 of its 303 hospitals have outstretched their full capacity and that only 17% of its ICU beds are available. This means that there are only around 11,000 hospital beds available statewide.

A COVID-19 mortality model from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) predicted the infection rates to worsen by the fall and that the U.S. may lose 208,000 lives by Nov. 1.

Dr. Christopher Murray who is the director of IHME said that the first wave of the pandemic has not reached its true end and that the second one will most seriously affect states that currently have the highest level of infections.