COVID-19 Cases are Spiking Across the Country
By: Christine Obiamalu
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, global cases exceed 10 million, with the United States seeing an increase of 46% in the last week.
The US reported 44,000 new cases on Friday, 26th of June, its biggest daily increase in the pandemic. Thirty-one states, mostly in the U.S. South and West, reported more new cases of COVID-19 last week compared to the previous week. Many of these states have now rolled back their plans to reopen.
Florida has ordered all bars and beaches to close while Louisiana and Washington have temporarily stopped the reopening of their state. 7 California counties have closed down bars. Washington also ordered wearing masks in public. Arizona also reported 3,858 confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, the most reported in a single day in the state so far, and has shut down public spaces like gyms, bars and movie theatres in response. Texas, one of the earliest states to return to business, has also reinstate some instructions, with bars and other public space closing down.
In addition, Los Angeles has become the new epicenter of the pandemic as cases and hospitalizations increase, despite Governor Gavin Newsom's orders requiring bars to close and residents to wear masks. Meanwhile New York, a former epicenter of the virus, now boasts low figures and has started Phase 2 of their reopening.
Health experts worry that states relaxing stay-at-home orders are the main cause of coronavirus spikes. There are also concerns that many states are far behind in the number of contact tracers they need - Arizona, for example, has roughly 5 contract tracers for every 100,000 people. Experts say that states need at least 30 contact tracers for each 100,000 people.
Many state officials have reported that people under 35 are going to parties, social events and bars without masks, getting infected and in result of that spreading the disease. This helps us understand why young people are accounting for more and more coronavirus cases thoroughly out the country.
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the country’s disregard of guidelines are responsible for the uptick of cases - and warned that if the trend continues, the country could start to see 100,000 new coronavirus cases daily, with a death toll that would be “disturbing”.
"There are crowds. They are not physical distancing, and they are not wearing masks. That's a recipe for disaster," Fauci said in an interview broadcast on Monday. "Now, we're seeing the consequences of community spread, which is even more difficult to contain than spread in a well-known physical location like a prison or nursing home or meatpacking place.” Fauci also warned that things ‘could get very bad’ if states don’t figure out how to contain the uptick of cases.
Donald Trump has yet to acknowledge the increase of cases in the past week, but he did spend the weekend golfing and retweeting White power videos.
