A walk-up site in San Antonio provided free coronavirus tests last month. Texas set three straight days of hospitalization records this week.
Photo: Eric Gay/Associated PressSome U.S. states that were largely spared during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic are now seeing record hospitalizations, causing some experts to fear that loosened restrictions and the approach of summer led many Americans to begin letting down their guard.
The post-Memorial Day outbreaks in states come roughly a month after stay-at-home orders were lifted. Experts urged people to continue to take the virus seriously and not take increased freedom as permission to stop wearing masks or resume gathering in large groups.
Dr. Marc Boom, chief executive officer of the Houston Methodist hospital network, said he is concerned by the “array of indicators, all of which are starting to flash at us,” including increased cases, a rise in hospitalizations and a boost in the percentage of positive test results.
In Arizona, the state’s health department over the weekend reminded hospitals to be in emergency mode as intensive-care units in the state approached 80% capacity. Texas set three straight days of hospitalization records this week, surpassing 2,000 a day for the first time. Utah hospitals have hit records twice in hospital admissions since May 25.
Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpassed two million Thursday, and more than 113,000 Americans have died from the virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Experts analyzing states with worrisome trends in serious cases are largely pointing to the onset of summer, when people began to congregate in resort spots.
Some also suspect that officials who allowed businesses to reopen after a relatively calm few weeks might have sent an inadvertent message that the problem had largely passed.
Texas has been phasing in its reopening since May 1, the same date officials in Utah said people could begin to return to normalcy. Arizona began phase one of its reopening on May 15.
Patrons at an outdoor restaurant in Tucson, Ariz., last month, when the state began to reopen.
Photo: Cheney Orr/Bloomberg NewsJoseph Lewnard, assistant professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, said the states where the outbreaks are now most aggressive “are states that did not have as severe of an experience early on so there may be less recognition of the threat.”
Jennifer Slusher, the director of retail and part-owner of the Provision coffee bar in Phoenix, said “as soon as that stay-at-home order was lifted everyone kind of pretended like it wasn’t happening anymore.”
Ms. Slusher said Provision has been operating out of a takeout window since mid-March, though people can sit on the patio. The business had just begun to consider returning to a more normal operation when it saw the increase in cases. That move is now on hold.
Since mid-March, the Provision coffee bar in Phoenix has been operating out of a takeout window and allowing customers to sit on the patio.
Photo: Eliza Collins/The Wall Street JournalOver the weekend, Arizona’s state health department told hospitals to activate or continue emergency mode, reduce or suspend elective surgeries and identify additional ICU beds to increase capacity by 50%. A spokesman for the health department said that hospitals had already been told to activate emergency plans in March and that the recent letter was just a reminder.
On Tuesday, Arizona reported that 79% of ICU beds had been filled, the highest percentage yet. On Wednesday, the state reported that 78% of beds had been filled.
“Arizona hospitals are prepared,” Gov. Doug Ducey said during a press conference Thursday.
A spokeswoman for Banner Health said Wednesday its 17 hospitals were at 89% staff capacity in their intensive-care units. Becky Armendariz, the spokeswoman, said the number of patients requiring ventilators has quadrupled since the state started to reopen and is still growing.
An emergency-room entrance in Phoenix. Intensive-care units in Arizona have approached 80% capacity.
Photo: Ross D. Franklin/Associated PressA group of health systems in Arizona, including Banner, sought to reassure the public Thursday, saying in a statement that we “are well prepared to manage an increase in patient volume.”
On Wednesday, 119 patients with Covid-19 were hospitalized in Utah, compared with the last week of May, when hospitalizations generally hovered just under 100.
The numbers, while far fewer than elsewhere, still have officials alarmed.
“We’re still spiking, and I would attribute that, and everybody does, to the lessening of the social distancing and the infrequent use of masks,” said Greg Bell, the president and CEO of the Utah Hospital Association. Mr. Bell said Utah hospitals, so far, have been able to handle the increase, but he isn’t sure how long that will last.
In Texas, hospitalizations for severe Covid-19 cases are up 42% since Memorial Day, according to state data. So far in June, the state has averaged 1,882 hospitalizations daily, compared with 1,672 throughout May and 1,515 through most of April. Hospitalizations on Tuesday surpassed 2,000 and rose to 2,153 on Wednesday.
Dr. Boom said hospitals are handling the upswing for now, but it can’t continue indefinitely, he said.
He and other medical professionals attributed the increases to Memorial Day gatherings and Texans’ beginning to relax and engage in riskier activities overall. Dr. Boom said people need to take the virus seriously and consider their individual behaviors.
“I have been to pools where there are 100 people crowded in, and that’s not safe behavior,” he said.
Gov. Greg Abbott said his focus will be on making sure the state’s hospital capacity remains up to handling Covid-19 cases. As of Tuesday, the state reported it still has more than 13,000 available hospital beds—out of a total of 56,000—and nearly 6,000 ventilators. The governor reiterated in an interview with a Dallas TV station Monday that he is confident the state has plenty of hospital capacity, and added that response teams have been able to lower cases in hot spots such as Amarillo.
“I am concerned, but not yet alarmed,” Mr. Abbott told the station.
Some other states are seeing similar trends. Alabama reached an all-time high for hospitalizations Wednesday, according to state data. The state now has 647 people in hospitals with Covid-19, up 44% from Memorial Day.
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In Arkansas, hospitalizations have doubled, from around 90 to 181, along with sharp increases in positive test results. South Carolina saw a 24% increase during that time.
Meanwhile, some states that experienced higher rates of infection and had later openings, such as New York, are experiencing a decline in hospitalizations.
Write to Eliza Collins at eliza.collins@wsj.com. and Elizabeth Findell at Elizabeth.Findell@wsj.com
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