U.S. authorities believe rising coronavirus death toll is indicator of past failures, but hope Americans have learned

With that dark announcement came some hope: Authorities said that these deaths are a lesson of early missteps in how the nation dealt with the virus, a lagging indicator of infections that Americans failed to stop three or four weeks ago before widespread "social distancing" was implemented. They believe that Americans now have largely learned enough to slow the outbreak's painful toll, which continued to tick up in hot spots that have been struggling to contain the virus for weeks.

The state with the largest number of announced deaths Wednesday again was New York, home to 35 percent of all American infections and about 43 percent of fatal American cases. It reported 779 daily deaths from the virus. 

New Jersey and Connecticut, where New York's outbreak has spilled across state lines, both also reported record death totals. So did California, one of the first states to be hit.

But new covid-19 infections appear to be leveling off or declining in some hard-hit parts of the country, possibly an indication that the American outbreak is nearing its peak. A computer model of the pandemic lowered its awful projections for the virus again on Wednesday, predicting 60,000 American deaths this year, down from 92,000 a few days ago.

No model actually knows the future, and estimates have been shifting frequently.

A rising concern among many public health experts is the fate of states in the South and Midwest, where social-distancing came later than other states or never, and where infections are creeping up.

"We can prevent that by continuing the kind of mitigation that we're now doing generally throughout the country," said Anthony Fauci, the federal government's top infectious-disease doctor, in an interview on Fox News Channel. He said he was particularly worried about Pennsylvania and Colorado. "Now is not the time to pull back at all, it's the time to intensify."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said Wednesday that his state had set records for infections and deaths from the virus. In Maryland, new infection numbers jumped by 25 percent in one day. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said the Washington, District of Columbia, region is just starting to climb: "We're still several weeks away from the peak."

The American outbreak of covid-19 is by far the largest of any country in the world - according to official figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University - with more than 423,000 infections, almost three times the number of cases reported by second-ranking Spain, which has 146,000. China, where the outbreak began, has reported about 25 percent of the number of cases as the United States - approximately 83,000 - but there is widespread doubt about the veracity of those figures. Worldwide confirmed infections crested 1.5 million on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump continued his verbal attacks on the World Health Organization, arguing that the international body leading the fight against the virus has been too friendly toward China, and on Wednesday he threatened to withhold U.S. funding to the group.

"Very unfair," Trump said of the group, noting that America pays more than China does to support its budget.

Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus immediately bristled at Trump's criticism of the organization, saying countries should unify and avoid politicizing the virus "if you don't want to have many more body bags."

New data released Wednesday reinforced the fearsome nature of the virus, deflating hopes that it is not as serious among younger adults or that it would have a summer offseason.

A Washington Post analysis found that at least 759 people under age 50 have died of the virus in the United States - shattering the once-common assumption that this is a disease that threatens just the old and infirm. Children are still largely spared, and young adults are still more likely to recover than the elderly. But it appears age is less of a shield than previously imagined.

"A very fit 30-year-old triathlete is just as vulnerable as a chess-playing 45-year-old who gets no exercise," said Shawn Evans, an emergency physician at a hospital in La Jolla, Calif. "We just don't know who it is that this virus carries the master key to."

Another study, by a panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences, found that the virus is not likely to wane significantly in the summer, when much of the country sees significantly higher temperatures; some studies have found that the virus seems less likely to spread at temperatures above 63 degrees. President Trump had gone further in February, saying the virus "will go away in April" when traditional flu season ends.

But, the academy panel said, that idea should be treated with caution. Even if the virus does spread more slowly in hot weather, they said, it is still armed with an enormous advantage: most of the human population still has no immunity to it.

"Given that countries currently in 'summer' climates, like such as Australia and Iran, are experiencing rapid virus spread, a decrease in cases with increases in humidity and temperature elsewhere should not be assumed," the panel said.

Elsewhere in the world on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained in intensive care for a third day, but a spokesperson said he was "sitting up in bed and engaging positively" with health staff. Britain reported sharp increases in new infections and deaths.

In Japan, previously seen as a success story in containing the virus, a surge of new cases has led to a political battle between municipal officials in Tokyo - who want a strict shutdown - and central government officials who want looser rules with less economic impact.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said there will be "no lockdown" of the capital.

There was more positive news from Washington state, the first in the United States to face a major coronavirus outbreak. With infections and hospitalizations leveling off, officials said the state would return a Federal Emergency Management Agency field hospital that was set up next the Seattle Seahawks stadium so it could be used in another state.

"This virus knows no borders, and we must care for the sick and vulnerable, regardless of any city, county, or state line," Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, said in a statement.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said he would order flags flown at half-staff in memory of the state's 6,200 dead. Cuomo said that new hospitalizations were trending downward, and it appeared that his state's expanded hospital capacity would be enough to handle the virus.

But, Cuomo said, more certainly will die.

"The number of deaths, as a matter of fact, will continue to rise as those hospitalized for a longer period of time pass away," he said.

The U.S. government has been criticized for squandering key weeks earlier this year, when it might have imposed wider testing, done more screening of incoming travelers, and encouraged lockdowns and social distancing. President Trump has at times minimized the threat from the virus, saying in late February that U.S. cases would soon be "pretty close to zero."

This week, as the death toll has risen to record levels, Trump has issued some admonitions about social distancing and grave warnings about the virus - but also has used his Twitter feed and nightly news conferences to talk about his television ratings, to insult rivals, and to feud with various foreign leaders and health officials.

Opinion polls show that public sentiment about Trump - which jumped up last month, as the crisis worsened - might be turning downward. CNN, Monmouth University and Quinnipiac University polls released Wednesday that showed between 45 percent and 46 percent of the American public rating Trump positively for his handling of the outbreak, compared with polls in late March that found approximately 50 percent approved of his management of the crisis.

Trump has not changed his approach. On Twitter, he spent Wednesday lobbing insults at the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden

In one tweet, Trump said that he believed the virus - whenever it is beaten - would be "quickly forgotten."

"Once we OPEN UP OUR GREAT COUNTRY, and it will be sooner rather than later, the horror of the Invisible Enemy, except for those that sadly lost a family member or friend, must be quickly forgotten," Trump wrote. "Our Economy will BOOM, perhaps like never before!!!"

But - in states like New York - there was little consensus about when, or how, the country could return to normal absent the rapid development of a vaccine. Cuomo, for instance, said he was discussing with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut how to eventually lift parts of the stay-at-home lockdown.

But he said he was not sure when - or if - the old version of normal would return. He said active coronavirus cases could be with us all for a long time.

"It may never be zero," Cuomo said. "You think there's ever going to be a morning that I wake up again, in my life, not worried about this in the back of my mind?"