Seven US states report highest COVID-19 hospitalisations amid Trump's claim of successful management

Seven US states have reported their highest coronavirus patient admissions in the pandemic so far, as cases surge in the US following the easing of restrictions.

These states are Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. They also confirmed a record daily case increase on Tuesday, each admitted record numbers of infected people to hospital, the Washington Post reported.

Also read: 'Coronavirus pandemic has brought the United States on its knees': CDC director

California saw record infections, too, with more than 5,000 in a single day for the first time, as Arizona, Nevada and Missouri also reported record case increases.

In Florida, Homestead hospital warned that its intensive care unit was at capacity, NBC reported. Florida confirmed 3,200 new cases on Tuesday, which marked the sixth day of more than 25,000 cases.

As Trump spoke of his success in managing the pandemic, and accused Democrats of wanting to keep the economy closed so that “numbers would be bad” at a student rally in Arizona, Dr Anthony Fauci pleaded with people to wear masks in busy public spaces. “Plan A, don’t go in a crowd. Plan B, if you do, make sure you wear a mask,” Fauci said at a Congress hearing.

The next few weeks would be critical to tamping down a disturbing coronavirus surge, he said.

Fauci, the head of infectious diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, and other top health officials also said they had not been asked to slow down virus testing, in contrast to Trump’s claim last weekend that he had ordered fewer tests be performed because they were uncovering too many infections. Trump said earlier on Tuesday that he wasn’t kidding when he made that remark.

The US has the highest Covid-19 cases worldwide, with more than 2.3 million, or a quarter of the global total. At least 121,217 people have died in the US so far.