Home

US states backtracking on phased reopening as coronavirus cases increase

Reading Time: 4 minutes

A growing number of states are pausing or even backtracking on their phased reopenings in the United States as public health experts sound the alarm about significant increases in coronavirus spread across the nation. The country’s daily caseload increased by more than 46 000 in the last 24 hours while a top infectious diseases expert warned that the number could rise to 100 000 per day, in just the latest worrying trend for a country that has lost more than 130 000 people to the COVID-19 pandemic.

California and Texas were at around 8 000 new cases overnight and Florida with more than 6 000, with record numbers being seen in Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma and the list goes on.

The Lone Star State of Texas- like others, moving too quickly to reopen, ignoring safety benchmarks, and now bearing the consequences.

“We’re seeing this massive relapse, this resurgence, and it’s happening in all the major metro areas of Texas, and it’s very alarming. The rate of acceleration is extreme. We’re seeing daily dramatic increase, almost a vertical slope. Some of the models are saying that we may be at 4 000 cases a day in Houston by the early/middle of July. So it would be catastrophic for the city. So this is a pretty bad scenario,” Dean of Baylor College’s National School of Tropical Medicine Dr Peter Hotexz explains.

Exponential spread 

Briefing Senators on Capitol Hill in Washington, the country’s leading public health experts warned of exponential spread if the rising case numbers were not brought to heel.

“I can’t make an accurate prediction, but it is going to be very disturbing. I will guarantee you that because when you have an outbreak in one part of the country, even though in other parts of the country, they’re doing well, they are vulnerable. I made that point very clearly last week at a press conference. We can’t just focus on those areas that are having the surge. It puts the entire country at risk. We are now having 40 plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100 000 a day if this does not turn around. And so I am very concerned,” says Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci.

Driving the new numbers are the young people in the main who have not adhered to social distancing and public health measures like wearing masks; adding to the urgency of a vaccine and when that will be available remains an open question.

“There is no guarantee and anyone who’s been involved in vaccinology will tell you, that we will have a safe and effective vaccine. But we are cautiously optimistic, looking at animal data and the early preliminary data that we will at least know the extent of efficacy sometime in the winter and early part of next year. Again, working with the companies and the investment made by this Congress, hopefully, there will be doses available by the beginning of next year,”  says Fauci.

While the wearing of masks has become a political football due to President Donald Trump and his supporters’ reluctance to wear one, the tide is beginning to turn with a growing number of Republicans and conservative media now breaking with the President. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was holding a mask when he said this.

“Until we find a vaccine, these (holds up mask) are really important. This is not as complicated as a ventilator, and this is a way to indicate that you want to protect others, and we all need, during this period until we find a vaccine to think of us as not only protecting ourselves but for others during this highly vulnerable period.”

A virus literally changing minds and where politics is simply no match for science.

Author

MOST READ