Some hospitals in the states of Texas y Florida they are about to run out of beds for coronavirus sufferers, while the White House has yet to outline a national strategy and insists that the “vast majority of people” are safe.
This Monday, the mayors of the Texas cities of San Antonio and Austin and the alderman of the county of Miami-Dade (Florida) warned that hospitals are at the limit and beds in intensive care units (ICU) are running out.
“Time is running out now in terms of the capacity of our hospitals in San Antonio, just like in many of the other big cities in Texas,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg told CNN.
The politician warned that if cases continue to grow at the current rate, San Antonio “has only a week left to run out of hospital beds and exhaust the capacity of intensive care units.”
THE LARGE CITIES OF TEXAS RUN OUT OF BEDS BY COVID19
In Texas, the big cities – governed mostly by Democratic mayors – are fighting a battle against the state governor, the Republican Greg Abbott, who refuses to take strict measures against the virus and does not allow local authorities to adopt them.
In this regard, the mayor of Austin, Democrat Steve Adler, asked Abott on Monday to restore autonomy to cities and allow them to dictate their own measures to contain the disease,
Adler is shuffling to issue a “stay-at-home order” to force residents to quarantine, thereby easing pressure on area hospitals.
In the last days, the cities of Houston y Fort Worth They have also expressed concern about the lack of beds, while in the bordering Rio Grande Valley 10 of the 12 hospitals have already reached their limit, since the number of admissions has doubled in the last two weeks.
In total, of the 69,000 beds available throughout Texas, 55,800 are busy, that is, almost 81 percent, according to data from this Monday from the state Department of Health.
SOME FLORIDA RESTAURANTS CLOSE AGAIN
Meanwhile, the increase in cases in Florida has put hospitals in small counties like Clay or St. Lucie in check, where only 4 percent of the beds in intensive care units are free.
Furthermore, in Miami-Dade, the epicenter of the coronavirus in Florida, 80 percent of the beds of the ucis are occupied, according to data from this Monday from the state health agency.
Due to the seriousness of the situation, the mayor of the county of Miami-DadeCarlos Giménez announced this Monday that since July 8 all restaurants will close (except for food delivery or pick-up), as well as ballrooms, banquet facilities, gyms, party venues, and short-term rentals, such as Airbnb.
“We want to ensure that our hospitals continue to have the number of workers necessary to save lives,” said Giménez in a statement.
In the last 24 hours, Florida has registered 6,336 new infections, a figure that is a slight improvement compared to the daily records of 10,000 cases in the last two days.
THE 14 US STATES WITH RECORD FIGURES BY COVID19
In the last five days, 14 of the 50 states of the country, including Florida, have recorded records in the daily number of new infections and in total the US announced 250,000 new cases, the equivalent of the total population of Buffalo (New York).
Likewise, Nevada and Arizona They have seen in recent days the highest number of hospitalizations for the virus so far.
In Nevada, the hospitals are at 68 percent of their capacity; while in Arizona, 84 percent of the beds are full and the situation is more serious in the ucis, at 89 percent, according to official data from the two states.
For the past month, the virus has been hitting the southern and western states of the United States, the first to reopen their economies; while eastern cities -like Boston, New York and Washington DC.- Now they have lower numbers.
THE WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS THAT VIRUSES ARE HARMFUL
Despite the figures, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Monday that the “vast majority of people” are safe from the virus and argued that US President Donald Trump “was right. “when he made some controversial comments this Saturday.
The president then maintained that “99 percent” of the cases “are harmless,” a comment that contradicts reality, since the death rate in the US is 4.6 percent, according to Johns Hopkins University. .
According to the same source, the US remains the country with the most cases in the world (2.89 million), while 130,000 people have died from the virus.
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