US deaths from the coronavirus have risen by more than 1000, the biggest single-day increase since early June.
After weeks of declining fatalities, there were more than 5200 US COVID-19 deaths in the week ended July 19, up 5 per cent from the previous seven days. That was the second successive week of rising deaths.
Nearly 142,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, a toll that experts warn will likely surge following recent record spikes in case numbers and an alarming rise in hospitalisations in many states.
US deaths peaked in April, when the country lost on average 2000 people a day. Fatalities had steadily fallen, averaging 1300 a day in May and under 800 a day in June.
But after many states reopened without achieving benchmarks for doing so safety, such as two weeks of declining cases, deaths are rising again in 21 states, including Arizona, Florida and Texas, based increases in the last two weeks compared with the prior two.
While some of the increase in new cases can be attributed to more testing, hospitalisations, which are not tied to testing numbers, began to surge in late June as well.
So far in July, 17 states have reported record numbers of currently hospitalised COVID-19 patients with nine states announcing new highs on Tuesday, including Alabama, Texas and California.
In Florida, about four dozen hospitals on any given day report that their (ICUs) have reached full capacity.
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