COVID-19 cases surpassing 80,000 for the first time. Five more of Vice President Pence's aid test positive.

 

In another surge across the United States, the pandemic is putting new strain on local health systems. Daily new coronavirus cases are hitting all-time highs, surpassing 80,000 for the first time Friday and then again Saturday.

But it's the stress on hospitals that worries health officials the most. 

Authorities in El Paso, were scrambling this weekend when intensive care units hit full capacity. A county judge issued a curfew, effective immediately. In Utah, the state hospital association discussed asking the governor to invoke “crisis standards of care” if the pressure on the health-care system doesn't ease up. In that situation, patients would be triaged based on their likely outcomes. Younger people, for example, would be prioritized.

Unlike previous surges of the pandemic, this one is reaching deep into the most sparsely populated areas of the nation. Montana health officials are warning of crisis-level hospitalization rates. In Wyoming, the National Guard has been called in to help with contact tracing. Those states, along with Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota, now have some of the nation’s highest per capita caseloads.

Another White House outbreak has infected at least five aides or advisers to Vice President Pence, undermining the argument President Trump has been making that the country is “rounding the turn" on the pandemic. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows made an extraordinary admission Sunday, saying the administration had effectively given up on trying to slow the virus’s spread. “We’re not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows said on CNN.

Pence, who has tested negative, is still campaigning after being exposed to the virus, a move health experts say is putting others at risk. Given the outbreak, Senate Democrats urged the vice president not to preside over the chamber for tonight's confirmation vote of Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

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