These 5 States Are Seeing A Surge In COVID-19 Cases Despite National Decline

Several states are still seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases even as new infections decline across the United States.

Five states -- Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana and Pennsylvania -- reported at least a 10% increase in new COVID-19 infections over the past week compared to the previous week.

In comparison, COVID-19 cases in 45 states in the U.S. either declined or stayed steady over the past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

In Michigan, hospitals continue to face an overwhelming onslaught of COVID-19 cases. With the limited number of beds, patients are being forced to wait more than six hours for admission.

"I had just worked a couple of shifts in a row where I had six, seven people sitting in the emergency department, waiting for beds at other hospitals that didn't exist," Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency room physician, told CNN.

On each day last week, Michigan health officials reported more than 375 cases of COVID-19 in children younger than 12, according to a state analysis.

Michigan has so far reported 1,186,800 COVID-19 cases and 22,683 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to an analysis from The New York Times.

In Colorado, new COVID-19 infections have risen among children aged 12 to 17, according to data from the state’s public health department. The positivity rate has also risen to 7.22%.

“It is concerning to me that we have seen a rise in this percent positivity value in the last week or so,” Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state epidemiologist, said in a news briefing, according to The Denver Post.

Colorado has reported 692,561 infections and 7,915 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Health officials in Minnesota on Friday reported 3,661 new coronavirus infections, putting the state's total number of COVID-19 cases to 735,646. The state also reported 20 new deaths, taking the total toll to 8,295, according to the Star Tribune.

On Saturday, Pennsylvania recorded 3,576 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total number of infections to 1,469,847. More than 29,000 have died of COVID-19 in the state, according to a weekly report.

In Montana, health officials reported 1,315 new cases Friday, bringing the state's total to 158,680. At least nine additional deaths were reported Saturday, raising the state's toll to 2,079 COVID-19 deaths.

New COVID-19 cases across the nation have steadily declined over the past week, with the average daily infections falling below 100,000 Thursday. It was also the first time daily cases dropped below 100,000 since early August.

COVID-19 infections have steadily declined since Sept. 13, when the rolling average of daily cases hit 172,500. However, top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that the number is still “way too high.”

"I would like to see it well below 10,000 and even much lower than that," Fauci said, according to CNN. "But when you're at 95,000, that's still a situation where you have a high degree of dynamic circulation of virus," he added.

Nationally, the U.S. has so far reported 44,339,485 coronavirus cases and 713,227 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.