Texas better stop testing, too

Harris County officials reported a shocking 1,994 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday alone, a new record. The county has reported more than 1,000 new cases on three of the last four days. Models show the number of cases rising over the next four weeks.

“We're approaching a precipice of disaster,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo (D) told reporters at a briefing this week. “We're looking at very, very concerning numbers in our hospital population that are getting worse by the day.”

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Doctors are monitoring more than 15,400 active cases in the Houston area. Hospitalizations have tripled in the weeks since Memorial Day, worrying some health experts who fear repeating scenes from Italy, where at the height of the coronavirus's worst days in April doctors had to make heart-wrenching decisions about who would get care and who would not.

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Houston is home to some of the largest medical campuses in the world, allaying at least some concerns about a health system that could become overwhelmed. But even with so many beds available and emergency plans activated, some hospitals are beginning to run out of space.

So many people are being hospitalized that Texas Children's Hospital has begun admitting adult patients overflowing from the Texas Medical Center. Hidalgo said Tuesday that 86 percent of the county's intensive care beds are occupied.

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Harris County is the hardest-hit region in a state where coronavirus cases are growing rapidly. Texas reported more new cases on Tuesday, 5,489, than all but four other states did over the entirety of last week.

  TThe Hill

Speaking to Wendy Zukerman, an Australian science journalist, on her podcast "Science Vs," [Anthony Fauci — director of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force] acknowledged his “considerable concern” at the start of the pandemic over how the crisis evolved through community spread. Fauci said he was struck by how transmissible and varying the coronavirus became. “I’ve never seen anything closely resemble the virus in the spectrum of what it can do,” he said, referring to the wide range of symptoms that vary between each individual infected.

He reiterated that young people — who are becoming more involved in the spread of the virus — are increasingly contracting more severe infections. The fact that it is also highly communicable contributes to it being “the perfect storm,” Fauci said.

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But while some less populated areas of the country have not been hit with an outbreak seen in the country’s major cities, Fauci underscored the need for continued protection and vigilance.

“In those places, if they did not lock down, they may have seen an outbreak, and we’re seeing evidence of that right now,” he said.

Fauci was referring to some Sun Belt states like Arizona, Florida and Texas.

  TThe Hill