93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
(AP) The coronavirus has been surging in hot spots around the U.S., with record numbers of confirmed infections and deaths in the South and West.
Hospitals are stretched to the brink in many areas amid fears the pandemic’s resurgence is only getting started. The rebound after shutdowns imposed in April were lifted has led to requirements for masks or other facial coverings in at least half of the 50 states.
Texas reported 10,000 new cases for the third straight day and 129 additional deaths. A third of its more than 3,400 total COVID-19 fatalities came in the first two weeks of July alone.
Florida reached another ominous record, with 156 virus deaths, and a staggering 13,965 new cases.
Reminiscent of New York City at the height of the pandemic there earlier this year, in Arizona the Phoenix medical examiner’s office is stocking up on storage coolers for an influx of bodies as funeral homes hit maximum capacity, with regular morgue storage nearly two-thirds full as of Thursday.
In Texas, San Antonio health officials have turned to refrigerated trailers to store the dead, and soldiers were preparing to take over a COVID-19 wing of a Houston hospital.
In hospitals in Hildago County, about 220 miles (354 kilometers) south of San Antonio on the Mexican border, it’s not uncommon for the body of a COVID-19 patient to lay on a stretcher for 10 hours before it can be removed in the overcrowded intensive care units, said Dr. Ivan Melendez, the county public health authority.
“Before someone gets a bed in the COVID ICU unit, someone has to die there,” Melendez said.
