11 States Have Each Passed 1 Million Covid Cases, So Far

USA Today: 11 States Report 1 Million COVID Cases Since Start Of The Pandemic
Oklahoma and Kentucky each reported their 500,000th coronavirus case on Monday, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Now, half of America's states have each reported at least half a million cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. In all, 11 states have reported at least 1 million cases each: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, New Jersey and Michigan. In Kentucky on Monday, 1,139 people were hospitalized compared to a few hundred a day in June and early July. Numbers of patients in intensive care and on ventilators also have risen steadily. (Aspegren, 8/10)

AP: Beshear: GOP Speakers Put Politics Ahead Of Fighting Virus
Republican leaders had a duty to promote COVID-19 vaccinations at Kentucky’s marquee political event, and their failure to do so showed they put “politics above the very lives of our people,” Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. GOP speakers at the Fancy Farm picnic last Saturday lambasted Beshear for his now-lifted restrictions on businesses and gatherings to combat the virus. Two Republicans who are expected to compete for Beshear’s job in 2023 accused the governor of infringing on individual liberties. (Schreiner, 8/19)

Hospitals everywhere are coping with a crush of patients —

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi Has No ICU Beds, Saw Nearly 7,000 Cases Over The Weekend
There are no intensive care unit beds left in Mississippi due to climbing hospitalizations due to the coronavirus, state health officials said on various social media platforms Monday. In a tweet, State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said emergency rooms are bursting at the seams, with more than 200 people around the state waiting for a hospital bed. "Keep in mind - this will translate into around 500 new hospitalizations in coming days, and we have ZERO ICU beds at Level 1-3 hospitals, and...(more than) 200 patients waiting in ERs for a room," Dobbs tweeted. (Haselhorst, 8/9)

AP: Arkansas Reports New Record For COVID-19 Hospitalizations
Arkansas on Monday set a new record for the number of people in the state hospitalized because of COVID-19 as its coronavirus surge continued. The state reported its COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by 103, its biggest one-day increase, to 1,376. The state’s previous record during the pandemic for COVID-19 hospitalizations was in January when it reported 1,371 virus patients in the hospital. (DeMillo, 8/10)

The Advocate: Louisiana Hospitals See Hundreds More COVID Patients Over The Weekend As Delta Surges Continues
Hospitalizations from COVID-19 in Louisiana reached startling new heights over the weekend, as the number of new infections caused by the virus continued to climb at their fastest rate since the pandemic began. There were 2,720 patients hospitalized in Louisiana on Sunday, the most recent date for which data is available, an increase of nearly 300 patients over the numbers reported for Thursday .Hospitalizations during the latest surge topped levels in earlier waves of the pandemic on Aug. 2. Since then, patients have continued to arrive in emergency rooms, with numbers climbing by double or triple digits daily through most of the past week. (Paterson and Adelson, 8/9)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin's Rise In COVID-19 Cases Concerns Milwaukee Health Official
Ben Weston, director of medical services at the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management, has been keeping a close eye on both county and state COVID-19 data and he's concerned. "We're trending in the wrong direction." Just a month ago the state Department of Health Services was reporting an average case total in the double digits. Now, the state reports a seven-day average of over 1,000 cases a day as the state deals with the onslaught of the delta variant. "All of us were kind of hoping that we were coming to a new normal not even a little over a month ago when our numbers were so low," said Weston. (Bentley, 8/9)

Philadelphia Inquirer: In Philly’s Least-Vaccinated Zip Codes, Fighting The Delta Variant Is A Game Of Catch-Up
Philadelphia’s least-vaccinated zip codes at the beginning of the summer remain its most undervaccinated now, despite door-to-door outreach, targeted clinics, a lottery, and advertising to encourage people to get COVID-19 inoculations. As the delta variant spreads, and the threat of other variants looms, these parts of the city are the most vulnerable to serious illness and death. (Laughlin and Lai, 8/10)

The Oregonian: Oregon Sees 40% Jump In Weekly Coronavirus Cases, Nears Hospitalization Record 
The number of newly identified coronavirus cases climbed in Oregon for a fifth consecutive week, according to state data released Monday, reaching the highest levels since December. Oregon recorded 8,304 new confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections, up 40% from the previous week. That number includes 1,032 new known cases recorded Friday, 964 Saturday and 1,233 Sunday. The three days of numbers were announced Monday because the state doesn’t report data on weekends. (Green, 8/9)

Los Angeles Times: COVID-19 Hospitalizations Rise Sharply Across Southern California As Surge Continues
COVID-19 hospitalizations have essentially doubled across much of California over the last two weeks — a troubling trend officials say illustrates the pandemic’s continued potency amid an ongoing surge in infections. Increases of that magnitude have been seen in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, state data show, straining healthcare systems to an extent not seen in months. (Money and Lin II, 8/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco's Coronavirus Case Rate Is Suddenly Higher Than The U.S.'s
San Francisco has been experiencing a surge in new infections since California reopened June 15 and the delta variant began spreading in the area. An increased number of cases among adults between the age of 25 to 39 has driven the surge. On August 7, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows San Francisco’s average daily new case rate at over 33 cases per 100,000 people over the last 7 days, compared with the U.S. rate of 32.7. (Data from San Francisco Department of Public Health show San Francisco have a slightly lower case rate at 31.3, but we chose to use CDC data for comparability to the U.S.). (Jung, 8/9)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

Salt Lake Tribune: Study: Residents Of Poorer Neighborhoods Got COVID At 10 Times The Rate Of Those In Affluent Neighborhoods
Residents of Salt Lake County’s least-affluent zip codes contracted the coronavirus nearly 10 times more often, per capita, than residents of the most affluent areas, according to U. researchers Daniel Mendoza and Tabitha Benney. “We were shocked at the nearly tenfold difference in contagion rate increase when comparing the groups we had defined,” Mendoza said. “I think it was a very sobering moment when we realized how deep the disparities truly were in our own backyard,” added Benney. About one-quarter of Utah’s population are racial minorities, who have accounted for about one-third of the state’s COVID cases. “The first time our team crunched the numbers,” Benney said, “we were all dismayed to see how well income and occupation related to COVID incidence rates.” (Pierce, 8/9)

The Washington Post: Dick Farrel, Radio Host And Coronavirus Vaccine Skeptic, Dies Of Covid-19 Complications
A conservative radio host in Florida who vehemently criticized the coronavirus vaccine has died of complications following covid-19, his fiancee and life-partner Kittie Farley confirmed Monday. On Aug. 4, Farrel Austin Levitt, publicly known as Dick Farrel, died of “severe damage” caused by covid-19, Farley told The Washington Post. He was 65.Farrel, a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump, had said on his Facebook page the inoculations had been “promoted by people who lied [to you] all along about masks, where the virus came from and the death toll.” (Suliman and Villegas, 8/9)

Also —

The Hill: Whistleblower Scientist Settles Complaint Over Trump COVID-19 Response
A former leading government scientist who says he was ousted from his job by the Trump administration has settled his whistleblower complaint against the federal government. Rick Bright led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) until he was removed in April 2020. Bright filed a whistleblower complaint alleging the Trump administration prioritized politics above science, and claimed his efforts to push back on the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus contributed to his removal. (Weixel, 8/9)