Coronavirus: Cases accelerate in the U.S.
Today may be a pivotal day in the United States, and we’re not talking about the election.
The country is close to surpassing 100,000 cases in a single day for the first time since the pandemic began. Yesterday, the U.S. recorded more than 93,500 cases, its second-highest total ever.
What’s perhaps most frightening about the latest surge to grip the country is how quickly cases are increasing. Last Monday, the U.S. had less than 75,000 cases, and at the beginning of October, the country was averaging 43,000 a day.
Infections are widespread and trending upward in 41 states. Twenty-two states set weekly case records including Washington State, Pennsylvania and Missouri. But the hardest hit states continue to be North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, which contain 14 of the 17 metro areas with the most cases per capita.
The U.S. is now averaging more than 500,000 cases per week. For some perspective, only 15 countries outside of the U.S. have recorded more than 500,000 cases total since the pandemic began.
One big unknown is whether in-person voting today will contribute to a surge in cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in guidance issued over the weekend that “voters have the right to vote, regardless of whether they are sick or in quarantine.”
The U.S. has already seen record high levels of early voting, which may alleviate a crush of people voting today, and safety precautions are being taken at the polls. Experts say any risk of catching the virus will correlate to how widespread the virus is in the community, and whether voters wear masks, line up outdoors or indoors, and keep physically distanced from one another.
But if history is any guide, we may be in for an Election Day hangover.
Our colleague Sarah Mervosh, a national reporter, told us that during the midterm elections of 1918 — the last time Americans voted in a pandemic — cases surged in October and similarly peaked around Election Day. Afterward, infections continued at a high rate for the following two months, she said, although restrictions on public gatherings were lifted and celebrations at the end of World War I may have also contributed to new infections.
The New York Times