About half of U.S. states have seen their highest daily infection numbers so far at some point in October, and the country as a whole came very close to back-to-back record daily infection rates on Friday and Saturday.
Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that 83,718 new cases were reported Saturday, just shy of the 83,757 infections reported Friday. Before that, the most cases reported in the United States on a single day had been 77,362, on July 16.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which federal health officials have used as a source for their pandemic projections, currently forecasts that the U.S. covid-19 death toll could exceed 318,000 by Jan. 1.
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As of Sunday, there were more than 8.6 million confirmed infections in the U.S., with deaths climbing to over 225,000, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
At least seven states -- Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and Oklahoma -- saw record high infection levels Saturday. And some Northeastern states hit hard in the spring are seeing numbers bounce back; New Jersey's toll of 1,909 new infections Saturday was the most it had seen in a day since early May.
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The virus also is surging in the Mountain West, especially Idaho and Utah.
In Twin Falls, Idaho, new data suggest that 1 in 24 residents has contracted the coronavirus, said Dr. Joshua Kern, vice president of medical affairs at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center. Amid a crush of new cases, the hospital brought in nurses from Boise, scaled back elective surgery and, as of Friday, stopped admitting pediatric patients.
"It's gotten kind of out of hand," Kern told The Associated Press. "We've had something like a third of our total COVID cases in our community in the last two to three weeks. There are a lot of parts of the state suffering under the same burden."
Kern said Twin Falls had been lulled into complacency after months of relatively low numbers, adding "going back to school was the signal to our communities that we can get back to normal."
"It's like the community said, 'Oh, good. It's over. We can party again,' and we saw the virus increase," he said. "This week, we went to the coffee shop to get pastries for our group, and it was closed because of covid. And we knew that the week before, they had been in there unmasked."
Mark Chidichimo, a retired FBI agent, said his sister, brother-in-law, brother, nephew and 92-year-old father in Idaho have all been diagnosed with covid-19 in the past three weeks.
Chidichimo, who lives in New Jersey, had nothing but praise for St. Luke's in Twin Falls, but said his brother was told that if he needed hospitalization, he'd be sent to Seattle.
In New Mexico, which reported record numbers of additional covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent days, more than 350 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals signed a letter imploring residents to stay home as much as possible, wear masks and limit large gatherings to help prevent another wave of "lonely deaths."
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"Please help health care professionals help you," said the letter, posted on the state Department of Health's website. "Help us ensure that we have the resources to treat the sick and care for the dying."
On Saturday, New Mexico officials reported 875 new cases and five additional deaths, increasing the state's totals to 41,040 cases and 965 deaths. The number of covid-19 hospitalizations increased to 264, up from a record 229 on Friday.
In North Carolina, Mecklenburg County Health Director Gibbie Harris ordered the United House of Prayer for All People to close all of its buildings and said the church has not cooperated with efforts to stem the virus's spread, the Charlotte Observer reported.
The county's "abatement of an imminent hazard" order will remain in effect until midnight Nov. 5, the newspaper reported.
Information for this article was contributed by Jim Mustian and staff members of The Associated Press.