 Welcome to Thursday's Overnight Health Care. More states are becoming hot spots for the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Texas is pausing reopening, and the CDC says there are even more cases than we know about. We’ll start with Texas: An escalating situation: Texas pauses reopenings amid COVID-19 spike Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Thursday the state will pause its efforts to reopen the economy as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections spikes and hospitals begin to fill. Abbott has been warning of a mounting catastrophe for days, as new cases rise precipitously in Houston, the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area and in cities like Austin, San Antonio and El Paso. Is it enough? It’s worth noting Texas is pausing, but not yet going back to previous phases of reopening. Abbott said businesses that are already allowed to operate under the current reopening phase will continue to be able to do so. "As we experience an increase in both positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, we are focused on strategies that slow the spread of this virus while also allowing Texans to continue earning a paycheck to support their families," Abbott said in a statement. "The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses. This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business." Read more here. Also being paused in Texas: elective procedures The governor issued an executive order Thursday suspending elective surgeries in four counties where surging COVID-19 outbreaks threaten to overwhelm hospitals. The order takes effect Friday at midnight in Bexar, Dallas, Harris and Travis counties, which hold some of the state’s largest cities. All hospitals are ordered to postpone surgeries or procedures that are not “immediately, medically necessary to correct a serious medical condition or to preserve the life of a patient.” “These four counties have experienced significant increases in people being hospitalized due to COVID-19 and today’s action is a precautionary step to help ensure that the hospitals in these counties continue to have ample supply of available beds to treat COVID-19 patients,” Abbott said. COVID-19 hospitalizations reached a new high of 4,389 in Texas on Wednesday, continuing a nearly two-week streak of record-breaking numbers. A note about "elective" procedures from an infectious disease specialist: Read more here. A new stat: CDC says virus may have infected 10 times more Americans than known Nearly 25 million Americans may have contracted the coronavirus, a figure 10 times higher than the number of confirmed cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday. In a briefing with reporters, CDC Director Robert Redfield said surveys of blood samples taken from around the country suggest that millions of Americans may have contracted the virus either without knowing it or with only minimal symptoms. For every one confirmed case, Redfield said, the CDC estimates that 10 more people have been infected. "This virus causes so much asymptomatic infection," Redfield said. "We probably recognized about 10 percent of the outbreak." Read more here. Whistleblower says Trump administration continues to retaliate against him A whistleblower says the Trump administration continues to retaliate against him, stating in an updated complaint on Thursday that top officials are actively trying to discredit him and prevent him from being successful in a new role. Rick Bright, who led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) until he was demoted in late April, said in an amended complaint that he has been "deliberately impeded" in his role at the National Institutes of Health, which "does not remotely utilize his expertise or experience." According to the updated complaint, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told HHS employees to refrain from doing anything that would help Bright be successful in his new role, and HHS employees were warned that Azar was “on the warpath” in response to Bright’s allegations. Reminder: Bright's initial complaint alleged his early warnings about the virus were met with indifference at the Department of Health and Human Services, and that his efforts to push back on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus contributed to his removal. Read more here. Biden goes on attack amid deadline for Supreme Court filing on ObamaCare Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden attacked President Trump on Thursday for his legal efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act even amid the coronavirus pandemic, calling it "cruel" and "heartless." "I think it's cruel, it's heartless, it's callous and it's all because in my view he can't abide the thought of letting stand one of President Obama's greatest achievements, the Affordable Care Act," Biden said in a speech in Lancaster, Pa., a key swing state. The speech was timed to coincide with the deadline on Thursday for the Trump administration to file its legal brief in the Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit brought by GOP-led states seeking to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act. The politics: The Biden campaign and Democrats more broadly, who had already seized on the GOP lawsuit, are now linking it to the coronavirus crisis, saying people should not lose their health coverage during a pandemic. Democrats won back the House in 2018 in large part because of their focus on health care and are now repeating the emphasis in 2020. Read more here. The Hill event On Tuesday, June 30 The Hill Virtually Live hosts a Pride month summit to discuss the fragility of civil rights in America today with a focus on the LGBTQ+ community. Olympic medalist Adam Rippon, Rep. Sharice Davids, Chasten Buttigieg, Alphonso David, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and more join Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons. Register Now! What we’re reading How the virus won (New York Times) Pandemic is wrong reason for keeping Obamacare: GOP states (Bloomberg Law) As Covid-19 cases peak, a virus once again takes advantage of human instinct (Stat News) Packed bars serve up new rounds of COVID contagion (Kaiser Health News) Trump says the coronavirus is 'going away.' His own task force disagrees. (NBC News) Republicans push Trump administration to step it up on coronavirus (Politico) State by state Florida is seeing Covid-19 cases skyrocket among young people (CNN) North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest plans to sue NC Gov. Roy Cooper over coronavirus executive orders (News & Observer) Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says Hamilton County’s coronavirus trend is 'chilling' (Cincinnati Enquirer) Arizona ‘overwhelmed’ with demand for tests as U.S. system shows strain (New York Times) | 
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