Washington, October 30 (RHC)-- The United States confirmed nearly 90,000 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday — the worst toll of the U.S. epidemic so far, with an average of one new infection every second of the day.  

Forty-three states are reportedly seeing cases rise, with 17 states breaking records for hospitalizations and eight states reporting record daily cases. 

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, said: “Well, things are very, very bad in the United States right now.  We are having some of the largest outbreaks that we’ve had during the entire pandemic.  And nine, 10 months into this pandemic, we are still largely not quite prepared.”

In Texas, El Paso County has ordered a two-week lockdown of nonessential businesses, as a surge of COVID-19 patients has left medical workers overwhelmed and hospitals are nearing capacity.