COVID-19 Cases Continue To Surge In States Across The U.S. – NPR

A health worker puts a nasal swab sample into a tube in a tent at a COVID-19 testing site at St. John's Well Child and Family Center in Los Angeles. Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A health worker puts a nasal swab sample into a tube in a tent at a COVID-19 testing site at St. John's Well Child and Family Center in Los Angeles.

For the fifth consecutive day, there were more than 1,000 deaths from the coronavirus in the United States and infections haven't shown signs of significantly slowing, according to the COVID Tracking Project. More than 145,000 people in the country have died from the virus and more than 4,000,000 people have been infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New daily cases are increasing in 46 states. Among them are California, which reported its highest number of single-day deaths on Thursday. In Indiana there were 934 new cases and 11 deaths on Saturday and Montana reported its highest daily number of cases on Saturday with 224 new cases.

Louisiana reported more than 2,000 new cases, 29 deaths and 15 hospitalizations on Friday alone, NOLA reported. In total, there are more than 103,000 cases and 3,600 deaths in the state, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. In response to the increase, Gov. John Bel Edwards extended phase two of the state's reopening for another 28 days.

"It is clear that COVID is alive and well in Louisiana, and as we see more people testing positive and admitted to hospitals, we simply are not ready to move to the next phase, and ease restrictions further as businesses open widely," Edwards said in a statement.

Mississippi, another state experiencing an uptick of cases, imposed a mask mandate on multiple additional counties, on top of the original 13 counties that already had mask mandates, this week. On Saturday, the state saw 1,434 new cases and 17 new deaths. In total, the state has more than 49,000 cases and 1,400 deaths.

"We are still in the middle of our most painful period of COVID-19 spread to date," Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Friday, according to the Sun Herald. "We have to slow the spread to prevent our health care system from becoming overwhelmed."

Over the past 24 hours, there have been nearly 2,000 additional cases in Alabama. Currently, there are more than 76,000 cases in the state and 1,400 deaths, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, Nevada just had its deadliest week from the virus. In total, there have been 41,816 cases and 732 deaths in the state, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

Arizona reported more than 3,700 new COVID-19 cases and 144 more deaths on Saturday. On average, the state has seen some decline in the number of cases since spikes in June and early July.

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COVID-19 Cases Continue To Surge In States Across The U.S. - NPR