‘A humanitarian catastrophe.’ Texas COVID-19 spike could be ‘apocalyptic,’ expert says

Several of the nation’s most populated states have experienced record numbers of new coronavirus cases in recent days and an infectious disease expert warns the spike is leading to “apocalyptic” surges in major Texas cities, CNN reported.

The U.S. broke the record for the most coronavirus cases reported in a single day Thursday with nearly 38,500 new cases, according to The Washington Post. Texas recorded 5,996 COVID-19 cases Thursday, beating the previous single-day that was set Wednesday, the Post reported.

Thursday’s alarming spike prompted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to pause the state’s reopening process, KTLA reported. The Lone Star State has a reported 131,917 COVID-19 cases and 2,296 deaths as of Thursday, according to Texas’s Department of Health and Human Services.

“Because the spread is so rampant right now, there’s never a reason for you to have to leave your home,” Abbott told KBTX. “Unless you do need to go out, the safest place for you is at your home.”

Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and especially Houston have seen infection rates rise at an alarming rate, the Houston Chronicle reported. The Houston-area, which has 39,639 confirmed cases as of Thursday, could see four times the daily number of cases by July 4, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN, according to the Chronicle.

“The big metro areas seem to be rising very quickly and some of the models are on the verge of being apocalyptic,” Hotez told Cooper, according to MSN.

Hotez posted about Houston specifically in a thread on his Twitter page, expressing concern about the number of hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions, MSN reported.

“Unless we intervene by the weekend, we are potentially facing a humanitarian catastrophe over the summer,” Hotez wrote.

Gov. Abbott suspended all elective surgeries in San Antonio, Dallas, Austin and Houston hospitals after their counties saw “significant increases” in coronavirus hospitalizations, KTLA reported. Abbott said he is still considering taking further action to curb the virus’s spread, according to KTLA.

This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 4:56 PM with the headline "‘A humanitarian catastrophe.’ Texas COVID-19 spike could be ‘apocalyptic,’ expert says."