Coronavirus: Cases surge, and states go into lockdown
The fall coronavirus surge in the U.S. is at a dangerous inflection point, with cases spiking across a wide swath of the country.
“What separates this moment is both the breadth of the struggle right now around the country, as well as the suddenness with which case numbers are going up,” said our colleague Mitch Smith, who tracks the coronavirus for The Times.
Last Wednesday, the U.S. topped 100,000 daily cases for the first time. Eight days later, that number was up to more than 163,000. Thirty-seven states set weekly case records in the last few days, and 32 states — from Alaska to New Hampshire — hit that mark again yesterday.
“If you look at the bar charts of cases in different states, a lot of them right now look like straight upward lines,” Mitch said. “And we don’t know where that goes.”
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Mitch told us he was most fearful for the Midwest, from Nebraska north to Canada and east to Chicago. The near future looks incredibly dark for cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Omaha, Des Moines and Minneapolis, where hospital beds are filling up and cases continue to rise.
As far as bright spots, there really aren’t any, Mitch said. The only positive development, if you could call it that, is that populous states like Florida, California and New York are not deteriorating as rapidly as other places — although the situation in those states is also getting worse.
In his first public address since losing his re-election bid, President Trump made no acknowledgment of the incredible surge in coronavirus cases gripping the nation. Because of the vacuum of leadership at the federal level, local elected officials across the country are begging residents to change their behavior, instituting fresh restrictions and warning of more changes on the horizon.
Gov. Kate Brown placed Oregon in a partial lockdown for two weeks, shuttering gyms and restaurant dining and capping social gatherings at six people. In New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a “stay at home” order, asking people to shelter in place except for essential trips, beginning Monday and lasting two weeks.
The governors of California and Washington urged their residents today to avoid all nonessential interstate travel, while the mayor of New York City warned that public schools could close as early as Monday.
Elsewhere in the country, as case numbers reach terrifying heights, states, counties and cities are considering economically devastating lockdowns to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.
The health care system in particular — as Ed Wong of the Atlantic reported today — is under intense strain.
“The country, for many months, has seen consistent transmission, consistent infection, consistent suffering, and consistent death,” Mitch said. “But what we haven’t seen, in a widespread way, is not being able to fully help people. And given what we’re hearing from doctors and governors, I fear that’s where we could be heading.”
How rules are changing in your state
As cases have exploded in the U.S., governors have undertaken a flurry of actions to try to slow the spread of the virus. Just this week, Utah and Ohio, both states led by Republican governors, have mandated masks statewide. The governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, has long resisted a mask mandate, but this week she ordered that masks be worn at large gatherings.
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