In California, 149 deaths were reported on Wednesday, the highest single-day number since the pandemic began.

"For those that just think, now people are getting it, no one's dying, that is very misleading," Governor Gavin Newsom said at his briefing Thursday.

Anthony Fauci, said he believes the country's hardest-hit states should consider pausing plans to reopen.

I think it's going to do the opposite.".

"If you're going to do contact tracing and the test comes back in five to seven days, you might as well not do contact tracing because it's already too late," Fauci said on Wednesday. .

"I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process," he said.

Texas also reported a new high with 98 deaths on Wednesday as new cases continue to soar throughout the state. .

Texas has more than 220,000 reported cases, and the Latino community has been hit the hardest, accounting for nearly 29% of deaths in the state.

"They think, 'It's just my family, I'm not going to get anything from them.".