[So tired of this fake news narrative and the harsher lockdowns and mask orders]

As coronavirus rebounds, more patients are being hospitalized and capacity is stretched

Patients suffering from covid-19 are rapidly filling hospitals across the South and West, with Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Nevada and Arizona setting records for hospitalizations Thursday, a sign that the coronavirus pandemic is entering a dangerous new phase.

In Arizona, where the virus appears to be spreading out of control, hospitals rushed to expand capacity and adopted practices similar to those employed at the height of the outbreak in New York City and Italy, including doubling up hospital beds in rooms, pausing elective surgeries and bringing in health-care workers from other states.

Perhaps most chillingly, at the urging of doctors and advisers, state officials this week activated “crisis standards of care” protocols, which determine for hospitals which patients get ventilators and care as the system becomes overwhelmed under the crush of patients.

“I think it’s pretty obvious that we are not going in the right direction,” Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease expert, said during a YouTube live stream.

The coronavirus continued its recent surge across swaths of the United States, with more than 55,000 new cases reported Thursday, eclipsing the record for the largest single-day total that was set Wednesday.

Deaths, which had declined steadily for several months, also are rising. States reported that 700 people died Thursday of covid-19 — an increase of more than 25 percent compared to the previous seven-day average.

“We are not flattening the curve right now,” Brett Giroir, the U.S. government’s coronavirus testing coordinator, said during a House hearing. “The curve is still going up.”

Not all states report on the number of current hospitalizations for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but even with incomplete data the increases are alarming, since they may presage a rise in deaths following the documented explosion in cases in the South and West and increases in scattered states elsewhere.

“There’s a lag between confirmed case and hospitalization, and between hospitalization and death. So you look at the numbers and you can see how hospital capacity could quickly become strained in coming weeks,” said Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona.

As hospitals have become overwhelmed, deaths have risen — not just among covid-19 patients who get insufficient care, but among those facing other medical crises who don’t seek care from an overwhelmed system because they think they won’t receive it.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that since Feb. 1, about 20,000 to 49,000 more people have died of all non-covid-19 causes than would have been expected.

more https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-coronavirus-rebounds-more-patients-are-being-hospitalized-thats-a-bad-sign/2020/07/02/62f60720-bc4f-11ea-80b9-40ece9a701dc_story.html

The latest from our friend Maggie…

Kimberly Guilfoyle, Top Fund-Raising Official for Trump Campaign, Tests Positive for Coronavirus

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of President Trump’s eldest son and a top fund-raising official for the Trump re-election campaign, tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday before a Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore, a person familiar with her condition said.

Ms. Guilfoyle traveled to South Dakota with Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., in anticipation of attending a huge fireworks display where the president was set to speak. They did not travel aboard Air Force One, according to the person familiar with her condition, and she was the only person in the group who tested positive.

As a routine precaution, people who come in close contact with Mr. Trump are screened for the virus.

Ms. Guilfoyle is the third person in possible proximity to Mr. Trump known to have contracted the virus. A personal valet who served Mr. Trump his food and the press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for the virus in May.Ms. Guilfoyle was not experiencing symptoms, the person familiar with her condition said. She and the younger Mr. Trump never met up with the president’s entourage, the person said. Out of caution, the couple plans to drive back from South Dakota to the East Coast, the person said.

Still, that another person who was expected to be near Mr. Trump tested positive — and someone who most staff aides consider a member of the Trump family — is likely to renew attention around potential risks to the president.

Ms. Guilfoyle attended Mr. Trump’s indoor rally last month in Tulsa, Okla. Before and since then, some campaign staff and Secret Service personnel have tested positive for the coronavirus. Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate who was also at the rally, said this week that he had been hospitalized with the virus.

Sergio Gor, the chief of staff for the Trump Victory Finance Committee, said in a statement that Ms. Guilfoyle “was immediately isolated to limit any exposure.” He added, “She’s doing well, and will be retested to ensure the diagnosis is correct since she’s asymptomatic, but as a precaution will cancel all upcoming events.” The younger Mr. Trump, despite testing negative, was self-isolating and canceling public events as a precaution, Mr. Gor said.

Even as outbreaks have emerged in the South and West and as states across the country report a record number of cases each day, White House officials — and Mr. Trump in particular — have minimized their focus on the virus in public appearances. In an interview on Wednesday, the president indicated that he believed the virus was “going to sort of just disappear.”

The president’s aides recently modified protocols for people entering the White House grounds, abandoning routine temperature checks, for instance. They have counseled people experiencing symptoms typical of the coronavirus to stay away.

But people who come in proximity to Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence are still tested for the coronavirus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/politics/kimberly-guilfoyle-trump-campaign-coronavirus.html