The United States has hit the dire landmark of two million confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday amid easing of coronavirus restrictions across multiple states. 

According to the Worldometer, the country now has over 2,066,401 confirmed cases, with the number of fatalities at 115,130. Though the number of new deaths has begun to curve downward, 21 states-including California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Washington, and Alaska-have seen a continuous rise in coronavirus cases, the New York Times reports. 

The recent trends have led Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, to predict that an additional 100,000 people will die from the pandemic by September. In a statement released by CNN Health, Dr. Jha said refusing to re-impose lockdown policies will result in up to 1,000 deaths each day. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) previously predicted the country would see 143,000 deaths by June 27.

COVID-19 Surge

While states that were initially hit hard by the virus have shown improvements, others emerged as new hot spots. The surge in cases and hospitalizations have caused alarm among health officials.

In Arizona, COVID-19 cases increased 115 percent since the state eased its restrictions in mid-May, with an average of 1,000 new cases daily. The number of cases reached record-high, forcing medical care facilities to activate their emergency plans as their intensive care units reach maximum capacity. 

A report by Banner Health, a major hospital system, showed a 400 percent increase in ventilated coronavirus patients in Arizona. As of Monday, more than 76 percent of all ICU bed spaces were occupied, leading the state health director to increase ICU capacity by 50 percent and suspend all elective surgeries. 

A former Arizona health chief, Will Humble, also urged State Governor Doug Ducey to implement a field hospital or order another shelter-in-place order, said Reuters.

Texas has also reported a surge in hospitalizations on Monday. The state's health department dashboard showed 1,935 were recently admitted in medical institutions-a new record since May 5, which saw 1,888 new hospitalizations. 

Florida has also seen a new surge, with more than 1,000 reported cases each day despite the drop in COVID-19 deaths. 

Other states such as New Mexico and Utah posted a rise of 40 percent or higher in new cases the previous week.  

Public health experts say authorities should not dismiss the surges as a result of more aggressive testing. Cellphone data suggest Americans are moving around at two-thirds of the level of what it was before the shutdown was ordered. 

The outbreak is also worsening around the world. A statement from the World Health Organization claimed the pandemic is getting worse around the globe following an increase of 136,000 cases in a day-40,000 of which are reported by the United States and Brazil daily.   

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