The total case tally of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States has reached more than 77,000 in just a single day, the highest so far in the country. Some states have already ordered portable cooler or refrigerated trucks as morgues were already at full capacity. 

Refrigerated truck
(Photo : Reutersconnect)
A refrigerated trailer that the San Antonio health authorities acquired to store bodies, as morgues at hospitals and funeral homes reach their capacity with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) fatalities, is seen in Bexar County, Texas.

The U.S. has remained to have the highest COVID-19 infections and deaths across the globe. The tally of the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has recorded more than 3.5 million COVID-19 cases and a death toll of more than 138,000.

On Thursday, the highest COVID-19 new cases in the country have reached 77,255. This surpassed the previous record of the country that recorded 67,791 two days ago. On the same day, Florida also got its second-most reported new cases in a day. The state has recorded 13,965 new cases.

As the positivity rate increases, this also means a smaller chance to reopen the economy. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a threshold of five percent positivity rate among those who were tested before the state can safely reopen. 

Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said on Thursday that health officials want to reduce the waiting time for the COVID-19 test. 

He noted that large commercial labs released the test results around 10 or 12 days. Giroir wanted the result back as early as three days, which is for him is reasonable enough. He also said that he is not happy with the turnaround time.

Giroir shared that around 700,000 to 800,000 people are being tested each day. If the turnaround time is seven days this means that states and health officials need to wait for a week before they will know the number of infected persons. 

According to researchers in the Netherlands, test results are very important, most especially for the contract tracers, who are looking for people who might be infected. The delay of test results even just for three days will not help the contact tracing and it may still accelerate the COVID-19 infections.

Meanwhile, hard-hit counties in Arizona and Texas are now preparing for the worst. They are now bringing in refrigerated trucks because morgues were already in their full capacity. 

There are 39 states in the country where the number of COVID-19 cases had increased. The states of California, Florida, Arizona, and Texas have become the states to watch for because of the surge of COVID-19 cases in these states that will likely lead to the shortage of hospital beds, most especially in the internal care units. 

An example of this was Arizona's Maricopa County, the medical examiner's office has already ordered four portable coolers with another one cooler, which are expected to arrive in the coming days. The office said their morgue has a full capacity of 200, but as of Friday, the morgue has a total of 156 deceased people.

The medical examiner's office said fatalities in their county have spiked in the summer due to heat. It was not clear if how many of the deceased people died due to COVID-19.

In a video, Mario Martinez, Metro Health Assistant Director, said San Antonio City and Bexar County in Texas have secured several refrigerated trailers to store the dead bodies until they can be released to the funeral homes. 

Meanwhile, Cameron and Hidalgo counties in Texas are sharing a large refrigerated trailer to store the dead bodies of COVID-19 patients because their morgues also lack space. 

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