People wait in line at a walk-up testing site for COVID-19 during the new coronavirus pandemic, Tuesday, June 30, 2020, in Miami Beach, Fla.
Lynne Sladky | AP
The U.S. reported more than 50,600 additional coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the largest single-day increase since the beginning of the outbreak, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Cases were growing by 5% or more, based on the change in average new cases compared with last week, in 40 states across the country, including California, Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Nevada, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins.
The record-breaking increase in new coronavirus cases continues to push the U.S. farther beyond what some previously thought was its peak earlier this year.
As of Wednesday, the U.S. reported an average of 43,404 new cases, marking a week that the average has exceeded previous highs set in April. CNBC calculates its daily Covid-19 cases using data compiled by Johns Hopkins University based on an average over the previous seven days to eliminate fluctuations in daily reporting.
Arizona reported a record spike in new cases and deaths on Wednesday, recording nearly 4,900 new coronavirus cases and at least 80 new deaths, according to the Hopkins data. Arizona’s intensive care units were at 89% capacity as of Tuesday, according to the state’s health department.
Gov. Doug Ducey rolled back the state’s reopening plan Monday, closing bars, gyms, movie theaters and water parks. The state has since reported a surge in its positivity rate, or the percentage of total tests that are positive, from a low of 4.9% in May to 20.1% in June, he said when announcing the rollback.
“We can’t be under any illusion that this virus is going to go away on its own. Our expectation is that next week our numbers will be worse. It will take several weeks for the mitigation that we have put in place and are putting in place to take effect,” Ducey said.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order on Wednesday closing indoor seating in bars in most of the lower part of the state to preserve its progress against Covid-19, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
There have been recent Covid-19 outbreaks linked to bars, including in East Lansing, infecting more than 100 people, she said.
Due to a growing number of cases in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered businesses with indoor operations to close effective immediately in 19 counties. The order applies to some of the state’s biggest counties: Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Santa Barbara.
Indoor businesses required to close include restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums and cardrooms, Newsom said at a press briefing. The state will also ramp up its enforcement of recommended social distancing guidelines and face-covering requirements, Newsom said.
“It’s more education. I’m not coming out with a fist,” he said.
California has reported an additional 6,093 cases based on a seven-day rolling average as of Wednesday, a roughly 28% increase compared with a week ago, according to Johns Hopkins data.
California, which has also reported a growing positivity rate through June, was one of the states added to New York’s travel advisory on Tuesday, requiring all travelers arriving to New York from highly affected areas to quarantine for 14 days.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday that the city will not allow restaurants to reopen their indoor dining sections as planned for July 6 due to growing coronavirus outbreaks in other parts of the country.
“We see a lot of problems and we particularly see problems revolving around people going back to bars and restaurants indoors. Indoors is the problem more and more, the science is showing it more and more,” de Blasio said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who supported de Blasio’s decision, later said during his press briefing Wednesday that New York City could be an area with “storm clouds on the horizon.”
He warned that the resurgence of cases in other states could threaten New York’s reopening as the state continues to post record-low levels of deaths, hospitalizations and positive cases.
“We have to be careful. We have dark clouds on the horizon, and we’ve made tremendous progress,” Cuomo said at a press briefing. “We’ve been through hell and back, but this is not over and this can still rear its ugly head anywhere in this nation and in this state.”
— CNBC’s Jasmine Kim and Nate Rattner contributed to this report.
CNBC.com
