Hospitalizations set new record as U.S. toll nears 250,000

Members of the Fairfax County School Board on Tuesday questioned the superintendent over his sudden decision to delay in-person learning for thousands of students in Virginia’s largest school system.

Superintendent Scott Brabrand announced Monday afternoon that local coronavirus cases — which are spiking in the Washington region and nationwide — had exceeded Fairfax’s acceptable threshold. Because of that, he said, the school system would not send 6,800 pre-K, kindergarten and special-education students back to classrooms the next day, as officials had originally planned. Instead, they would remain all-virtual until at least Nov. 30.

Board members did not seriously dispute the decision Tuesday during a virtual meeting, although some lamented it as an unfortunate necessity. But members criticized the way Fairfax officials communicated the switch to the public — and some took issue with how the board learned about it.

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The Kennedy Center is canceling all scheduled live performances through April 25 as well as next summer’s slate of Broadway touring shows, pushing its pandemic-related closure into a second year, officials announced Wednesday. The annual Kennedy Center Honors — already postponed to March 7 — will be produced in late spring using a hybrid format of virtual tributes and live performances.

The cancellations will result in the permanent layoffs of 38 employees who had been furloughed, adding to the 64 who were laid off in July, when the arts center also eliminated 47 vacant positions. The administrative staff has been cut by 36 percent since the start of the pandemic, said Kennedy Center president and chief executive Deborah Rutter.

Americans seeking coronavirus tests amid an unprecedented surge in cases are experiencing lengthier lines and waiting days to get test results — delays that complicate efforts to slow the pandemic and that are expected to intensify as people try to get tested ahead of family gatherings.

Testing sites from New York to Wisconsin to Oregon are reporting lines stretching 3 to 4 hours, with results taking as long as five days.

In Denver, officials at one testing site shut down within an hour of opening Tuesday because it had reached capacity. At another site, lines grew so long that officials closed over concerns about traffic safety. In New York, residents are standing in line for hours. In Olympia, Wash., officials have had to turn away as many as 200 cars in line in recent days because labs had reached capacity.

With the death toll in the United States nearing a quarter-million, several foreboding figures pointed at a pandemic with no end in sight.

On Wednesday, covid-19 killed nearly 1,900 people — the highest number of fatalities reported in a single day since the first week of May, during some of the pandemic’s darkest days.

And on the same day, the country set a record for the number of virus patients hospitalized, a number that has more than doubled in the past month. That metric is particularly concerning, experts say, because it is likely to presage more deaths as hospitals and staff become stretched thin.

A growing number of state leaders have rolled out new restrictions this week in an effort to interrupt that trend, turning back to measures they employed in the spring.

“We ran out of easy choices and decisions a long time ago,” Steven Stack, the head of Kentucky’s public health department, said at a news conference announcing the state’s new round of restrictions.

Stack, appearing on video chat, broke down briefly, making an emotional plea to the state’s residents.

“Folks, we’ve got to do this, we can overcome it,” he said.

Nearly every state is in similarly dire straits: 42 states have set records for average daily cases in the past week.

As of Wednesday, the country’s seven-day average for new cases stood at more than 160,000 — also a record.

More than 3 million people in the United States have active coronavirus infections and are potentially contagious, according to a new estimate from infectious-disease experts tracking the pandemic. That number is significantly larger than the official case count, which is based solely on those who have tested positive for the virus.

The vast — and rapidly growing — pool of coronavirus-infected people poses a daunting challenge to the governors and mayors in hard-hit communities who are trying to arrest the surge in cases. Traditional efforts such as testing, isolation of the sick and contact tracing can be overwhelmed when a virus spreads at an exponential rate, especially when large numbers of asymptomatic people may be walking around without even knowing they are infectious.

The coronavirus is posing its most serious threat to Congress in months, sidelining the 87-year-old Senate president pro tempore, throwing a cloud over the end-of-year congressional agenda and raising sharp questions about public health precautions inside the Capitol.

Tuesday’s diagnosis of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) came less than 24 hours after he had presided over the opening of the Senate, led the Pledge of Allegiance, delivered two speeches to a sparse audience — and later moved around the crowded Senate floor after casting a vote.

None of the fellow senators he encountered during his activities this week publicly announced plans to self-quarantine, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) moved to recess Wednesday, a day earlier than planned, for an extended holiday break. That decision, GOP aides said, was prompted by the attendance issues surrounding the coronavirus threat.

One by one, governors in states across the country are implementing new coronavirus restrictions as cases hit record levels, with Minnesota, Kentucky and Kansas the latest to announce stricter measures Wednesday.

The drumbeat of orders comes during one of the pandemic’s darkest times: Nearly every state has recently set records for daily infections, virus hospitalizations continue to mount, and covid-19 killed more people Wednesday than on any day since May.

Minnesota bars, gyms and other nonessential businesses were ordered to close for four weeks beginning Friday after a series of targeted restrictions issued by Gov. Tim Walz (D) did not stop the state from reporting a new high for hospitalizations Wednesday. Restaurants are limited to takeout or delivery only.

Walz pointed to widespread community transmission identified through data collection as reason for the closures in an evening video statement.

“We now know that more than a third of the folks who are getting infected are coming from sources they don’t know,” he said. “That’s very, very dangerous because if we can’t test, if we can’t isolate, the spread exponentially grows.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) addressed the dire situation in his state at a news conference Wednesday evening, announcing a package of new restrictions.

“When fighting covid-19, action is unpopular but inaction is deadly,” Beshear said.

The state is ceasing in-person instruction in schools beginning next week, shutting down indoor service at bars and restaurants, slashing capacity limits at gyms, weddings and funerals, and limiting indoor gatherings to eight people and two households.

“People need to do a better job for the sake of others and the community,” Beshear said, urging residents to heed the restrictions.

Many of the state’s hospitals, he warned, are close to being “overwhelmed.”

In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly (D) is enacting a statewide mask mandate — the second time she has attempted the order. In July, most Kansas counties opted out of the mandate, and Republicans criticized the governor, saying the mandate was too sweeping.

This time, Kelly will give counties without a mandate a week to implement one of their own.

“As covid-19 continues to spread through Kansas communities and hospitalizations increase at concerning rates, it is clear we must take action to protect our communities and our economy,” Kelly said in a statement.

Elsewhere, counties are going beyond what states have ordered. In Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, officials issued a stay-at-home order and advised residents to cancel Thanksgiving plans. In Los Angeles County, leaders announced plans for an overnight curfew on businesses.

Denmark’s agriculture minister resigned Wednesday amid falling trust in government, after conceding the lack of a legal basis for a questionable order earlier in the month to kill the country’s entire population of more than 15 million farmed minks to contain a coronavirus mutation. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen faced calls from the opposition to do the same.

“I no longer have the sufficient support among a majority of the parliamentary parties,” Agriculture Minister Mogens Jensen said in a resignation statement.