Coronavirus spikes in 21 states and one is in crisis
While cities and states are reopening, new COVID-19 cases are being reported.
While the world’s attention has turned to the injustice and police brutality that caused the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the coronavirus continues its deadly spread. After quarantine in many U.S. cities began in March, states have slowly begun to reopen.
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Unfortunately, the reopenings have been met with a spike in coronavirus cases in 21 states, reports The New York Times.
Medical workers in personal protective equipment (PPE) test for COViD-19 at Abyssinian Baptist Church, one of 11 churches across the city as well as Nassau County and Westchester that has begun testing for the virus on May 13, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
At least one of these cities is experiencing a rash of cases to the point where they are asking for additional help to combat it according to CNN. Arizona has asked its hospitals to move to emergency status as the state is up to 76% capacity in its intensive care units, close to its number at the height of the pandemic.
Hard-hit states like California, New Jersey, and the New York metropolitan area have all reopened for business with restrictions still on possible germ incubators like hair and nail salons and gyms and spas.
But experts say that surging cases could reinvigorate a crisis that the nation was making some headway against. Hospital beds could be an issue as well as the lack of resources, planning, and supplies that were a problem earlier in the year. The global protests against racism and police brutality, where people were inconsistent with social distancing and mask-wearing, have been feared as another possible source of increased spread of the virus.
The New York Times, which has maintained a map of data with information on the virus shows increases in virus cases in 21 states, though they are less than 1,000 in Alaska and Montana.
California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, and Tennesse lead the way in new cases, according to the map. Of those, Texas and Florida are states that shut down later and reopened earlier than others.
Those who have protested are asked to get tested to quell any possible spikes.
“You could have an exposure and it will not come through a contact tracing system. Nobody knows that you were there nobody has your name,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the media earlier this week, CNN reported.
According to The Washington Post, cases in Texas have risen 36% since Memorial Day, when George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis. Hospitalizations in the state jumped 121 cases in a day earlier this week.
Our ICUs are very busy caring for the sickest of the sick who are battling COVID-19. Since May 15, ventilated COVID-19 patients have quadrupled. Banner Health also recently reached capacity for patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment. (2/3)
— Banner Health (@BannerHealth) June 8, 2020
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North Carolina is reporting the second-highest jump in cases, the Post reports.
There are currently 1.9M COVID-19 cases in the U.S., with over 110,000 deaths.
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