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 Texas, which has been at the forefront of efforts to reopen
devastated economies shut down in the face of the coronavirus
pandemic, has seen one of the biggest jumps in new cases, reporting
more than 6,000 in a single day on Monday.
"This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we
can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business,"
Governor Greg Abbott, a two-term Republican, said in a statement.
Texas has also set record hospitalizations for 13 days in a row.
Abbott has suspended elective surgeries in the Houston, Dallas,
Austin and San Antonio areas to free up hospital bed space.
Texas' rising numbers are part of a nationwide resurgence in states
that were spared the brunt of the initial outbreak or moved early to
lift restrictions on residents and businesses.
Cases rose across the United States by at least 39,818 on Thursday,
the largest one-day increase of the pandemic.
More than 36,000 new U.S. cases were recorded on Wednesday, a few
hundred shy of the record 36,426 on April 24.
Also reporting record rises in cases this week were Alabama,
Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada,
Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming.
While some of the increased numbers of cases can be attributed to
more testing, the percentage of positive results is also climbing.
The Trump administration has tried to soften nationwide concerns
about the pandemic even as a dozen or so states see worrisome
increases.
"We're working aggressively with states and local leaders in this
situation but it's important for the American people to know this is
a localized situation," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary
Alex Azar told Fox News in an interview. "The counties that are in
hotspots are 3% of American counties."
Government experts believe more than 20 million Americans could have
contracted the coronavirus, 10 times more than official counts,
indicating many people without symptoms have or have had the
disease, senior administration officials said.
People who have COVID-19 but show no symptoms are capable of
spreading the disease, health experts say.
PANDEMIC SHIFTS TO SOUTH, WEST
The focus of the pandemic has moved to the U.S. West and South,
including more sparsely populated rural areas, from the early
epicenter around New York, where more than 31,000 deaths have been
recorded, more than a quarter of the country's total.
Oregon and Utah have also paused or slowed lifting the restrictions.
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In California, Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, declared a budget emergency
due to the pandemic.
Nearly 5,350 people tested positive for the coronavirus in the past 24 hours,
fewer than Wednesday’s record of 7,149. But the number of Californians becoming
very ill continued to rise, using about 34% of the available intensive care beds
in the state, up from 29% on Wednesday.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Wednesday ordered travelers from eight
mostly Southern states, as well as tri-state residents returning from those
areas, to self-quarantine for two weeks on arrival.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday that New York reached a new
milestone as the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 fell to 996, the
first time since March 18 the number fell below 1,000.
Cuomo, a Democrat who has been sharply critical of President Donald Trump's
handling of the pandemic, during an interview on CNN appeared to blame Trump and
other Republicans for the surges in other states.
"You played politics with this virus and you lost," Cuomo said on CNN.
Apple Inc <AAPL.O> said on Thursday it would close 14 stores in Florida due to
the rise in coronavirus cases, following an earlier round of re-closures in
Texas, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Shares of Walt Disney Co <DIS.N> fell 2% on Thursday after it delayed the
reopening of California theme parks and resorts until it receives approval from
state officials. Disney's stock price made back much of that loss in later
trading.
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For a graphic on Where coronavirus cases are rising in the United States:
https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/USA-TRENDS/dgkvlgkrkpb/index.html
For a graphic on Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S.: https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Additional reporting by Peter
Szekely in New York, Doina Chiacu in Washington and Sharon Bernstein in
Sacramento; Writing by Sonya Hepinstall and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill
Tarrant, Lisa Shumaker and Daniel Wallis)
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