Coronavirus hospitalizations are rising in the US after falling for 2 months. Health systems are at risk of being overwhelmed.
Hospitalizations are on the rise in the US as new coronavirus cases continue to climb.
COVID-19 hospitalizations started going up toward the end of June, after two straight months of declining.
A surge in hospitalizations threatens to overwhelm healthcare systems in cities confronting fast-growing outbreak.
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In the last two weeks, the US's daily number of new coronavirus cases has hit record highs six times.
Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 had been steadily declining for two straight months, but now they're climbing, too.
That stands to put pressure on healthcare systems in places where cases are surging. In Houston and Austin, Texas, hospitals will be overwhelmed within two weeks if the cities don't get control of the virus, the mayors said over the weekend. Doctors in Arizona told Business Insider they're working 90-hour weeks.
"We are still knee-deep in the first wave of this," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US's top infectious disease expert, said in a conversation with Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, on Monday.
As of Wednesday, more than 3 million cases of coronavirus have been reported in the US and more than 131,000 people have died.
Here's a look at how the total number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the US compares to the number of new cases reported each day.
Shayanne Gal/Business Insider
Although daily coronavirus deaths have not surged significantly amid the increase in cases and hospitalizations, the New York Times and the COVID Tracking Project both recorded a spike of more than 900 new deaths on Tuesday — the largest in several weeks.
It's a sign more deaths could be imminent.
"In places where cases are rising, hospitalizations are increasing too," Howard Koh, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, previously told Business Insider. "We will inevitably see deaths coming in such situations, unfortunately."
Aria Bendix contributed reporting.
Read the original article on Business Insider
