US coronavirus hospitalisations reach two-month high

The number of people hospitalised with coronavirus in the US has soared to a two-month high as the number of patients surpassed 40,000 for the first time since August.

According to an analysis by Reuters, hospitals have seen a 36 per cent rise in coronavirus patients over the past four weeks with hospitalisations reaching 40,264 on Wednesday.

On Friday, the US recorded 69,478 new cases of the disease, the highest single-day total since July 24, and the fifth-highest single-day total since the start of the pandemic.

The figures, which are said to be approaching levels last seen during the summer peak, follow a 45 per cent rise in the seven-day average of new cases of Covid-19 over the past four weeks. 

So far this month, 16 states have reported their highest daily numbers of hospitalised Covid-19 patients since the pandemic started.

Midwest states including: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, have all reported record numbers of hospitalisations.

Experts have warned that the country could be facing a “substantial third wave” of the disease that will coincide with the oncoming flu season.

“Our worry has been that we would see a fall wave, that we’d see a big resurgence in the fall,” Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told CNBC.

“And that has really been something I think all of us in the public health community have been worried about for a while.”

The US has recorded more than 8.38 million cases of the novel coronavirus and over 222,000 deaths since the outbreak took hold of the country in March.

Globally, the number of new infections around the world continues to grow at an accelerating rate, averaging more than 350,000 per day and hitting 40 million in total, just one month after passing 30 million.

“As the northern hemisphere winter approaches, cases of Covid-19 are rising globally, especially in Europe where countries are expanding measures to contain it, and many people are understandably weary of the disruption the pandemic is causing to their lives and livelihoods,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation said on Friday.