‘Coming Back And Biting Us’: US Sees Virus Resurgence

amother

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 4:10 pm

A coronavirus resurgence is wiping out two months of progress in the U.S. and sending infections to dire new levels across the South and West, with hospital administrators and health experts warning Wednesday that politicians and a tired-of-being-cooped-up public are letting a disaster unfold.

The U.S. recorded a one-day total of 34,700 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, the highest level since late April, when the number peaked at 36,400, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

While newly confirmed infections have been declining steadily in early hot spots such as New York and New Jersey, several other states set single-day records this week, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma. Some of them also broke hospitalization records, as did North Carolina and South Carolina.

“People got complacent,” said Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of the Houston Methodist hospital system. “And it’s coming back and biting us, quite frankly.”

Stocks slid on Wall Street as the news dampened hopes for a quick economic turnaround. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 700 points for a drop of 2.7%. The broader S&P 500 fell 2.6%.

The virus has been blamed for over 120,000 U.S. deaths — the highest toll in the world — and more than 2.3 million confirmed infections nationwide. On Wednesday, the widely cited University of Washington computer model of the outbreak projected nearly 180,000 deaths by Oct. 1.

California reported over 7,100 new cases, and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would withhold pandemic-related funding from local governments that brush off state requirements on masks and other anti-virus measures. Florida’s single-day count surged to 5,500, a 25% jump from the record set last week.

In Texas, which began lifting its shutdowns on May 1, hospitalizations have doubled and new cases have tripled in two weeks. Gov. Greg Abbott told KFDA-TV the state is facing a “massive outbreak” and might need new local restrictions to preserve hospital space.

The Houston area’s intensive care units are nearly full, and two public hospitals are running at capacity, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

Houston Methodist’s Boom said Texans need to “behave perfectly and work together perfectly” to slow the infection rate.

“When I look at a restaurant or a business where people … are not following the guidelines, where people are just throwing caution to the wind, it makes me angry,” he said.

Just 17 percent of intensive-care beds were available Wednesday in Alabama — including just one in Montgomery — though hospitals can add more, said Dr. Don Williamson, head of the Alabama Hospital Association.

“There is nothing that I’m seeing that makes me think we are getting ahead of this,” he said.

In Arizona, emergency rooms are seeing about 1,200 suspected COVID-19 patients a day, compared with around 500 a month ago. If the trends continue, hospitals will probably exceed capacity within the next several weeks, said Dr. Joseph Gerald, a University of Arizona public health policy professor.

“We are in deep trouble,” said Gerald, urging the state to impose new restrictions on businesses, which Gov. Doug Ducey has refused to do.

Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious-disease expert at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, said he worries that states will squander what time they have to head off a much larger crisis.

“We’re still talking about subtlety, still arguing whether or not we should wear masks, and still not understanding that a vaccine is not going to rescue us,” he said.

The Texas governor initially barred local officials from fining or penalizing anyone for not wearing a mask as the state reopened. After cases began spiking, Abbott said last week that cities and counties could allow businesses to require masks. So did Arizona’s Ducey, who is a Republican, as is Abbott.

Some business owners are frustrated that officials didn’t do more, and sooner, to require masks.

“I can’t risk my staff, my clientele, myself, my family and everybody else in that chain just because other people are too inconvenienced to wear a piece of cloth on their face,” said Michael Neff, an owner of the Cottonmouth Club in Houston. He closed it this week so staffers could get tested after one had contact with an infected person.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, ordered people to wear masks in public as the daily count of hospitalizations and new cases hovered near records. In Florida, several counties and cities recently enacted mask requirements.

In a sign of the shift in the outbreak, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey announced they will ask visitors from states with high infection rates to quarantine themselves for 14 days. In March, Florida issued such an order for visitors from the New York City area, where cases were soaring.

The U.S. Justice Department took aim at Hawaii’s quarantine requirement for visitors, saying it discriminates against out-of-state residents. The Hawaii attorney general’s office says there’s no merit to the government’s arguments and a related lawsuit from out-of-state property owners.

Cases also are surging in some other parts of the world. India reported a record-breaking one-day increase of nearly 16,000 cases. Mexico and Iraq hit new highs as well.

But China appears to have tamed a new outbreak in Beijing, again demonstrating its ability to mobilize vast resources by testing nearly 2.5 million people in 11 days. China, where the virus emerged last year, reported 19 new cases nationwide Thursday. While up from the day before, there was no sign of further geographic spread.

Worldwide, over 9.4 million people have been confirmed infected, and nearly 500,000 have died, by Johns Hopkins’ count.

(AP)

https://www.theyeshivaworld.co......html

Ora in town

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 4:38 pm

This is very worrying.

amother

Denim

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 4:41 pm

If it is not is Brooklyn/Monsey/Lakewood does anyone care?
I do, just the perception I hurt around here.

Ora in town

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 4:46 pm

amother [ Denim ] wrote:

If it is not is Brooklyn/Monsey/Lakewood does anyone care?
I do, just the perception I hurt around here.

Perhaps there are people living in Florida or Texas or California...

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 4:50 pm

amother [ Denim ] wrote:

If it is not is Brooklyn/Monsey/Lakewood does anyone care?
I do, just the perception I hurt around here.

Unfortunatey I think there is a large part of this forum from these places and they dont realize just how much this virus is NOT gone.
People live in their own bubbles, thats all.

And yes it is very scary and worrying. But anyone who actually thought it was just going to go away and not come back at all were, I think, sticking their heads in the sand.

Ora in town

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 4:58 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

It's definitely NOT gone...
We need to remain careful...

Especially parties seem to be a place where it spreads...
and big assemblies...

amother

Maroon

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 5:42 pm

Are we really surprised that something like this is happening after weeks of protests all over the country? After actual medical doctors-with degrees and everything-supported said protests and stated that attending them was more important than social distancing?

Ora in town

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 5:55 pm

amother [ Maroon ] wrote:

Those protests were a bad idea, without doubt.
Just like the campaign rallies Trump held and will hold...

ora_43

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 5:57 pm

Same in Israel Sad

. So much for Bibi's reopening guidelines, the government is completely ignoring them.

Reopening was supposed to stop if there were more than 100 new cases a day - we're at over 600 a day, with a steadily increasing infection rate. There have been targeted shutdowns in specific areas, but not much else.

I am really not looking forward to seeing the numbers next week. Or to the fallout... Why can't we all just take reasonable precautions, so that we don't end up having to take unreasonable ones??

amother

Amber

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 6:02 pm

ora_43 wrote:

Same in Israel Sad

Probably not sending my daughter to seminary for this reason. (If they're even opening).
I thought Israel was being careful at first, but not so sure right now

Just One

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 6:11 pm

I agree this is worrying. What is the alternative though? Are we ready to shut the world down every couple of weeks?
I don't think it's a good long term solution

PinkFridge

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 6:35 pm

amother [ Amber ] wrote:

Probably not sending my daughter to seminary for this reason. (If they're even opening).
I thought Israel was being careful at first, but not so sure right now

They were careful. So careful, and with better timing than other countries, that many people didn't get it yet as opposed to some states and communities. But I don't know if anyone will walk back opening. The economy and most people might not be able to handle it.

All we can do is do what's in our hands - be careful, masks, sanitizing hands, etc. - and then, before, during, and after, daven.

youngishbear

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 6:39 pm

amother [ Maroon ] wrote:

And yet, NYC, which had plenty of protests, has not seen a surge in numbers.

The surge seen in some states and in Israel might be related to lack of mask-wearing, which NYC protestors did by and large, and to the approach to reopening, which varied by state. There may be additional factors, such as interstate/international travel, or the level of immunity in specific locations, that we don't have definitive data on yet, or some as-yet-unknown aspect of the virus itself.

youngishbear

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 6:42 pm

Just One wrote:

I agree this is worrying. What is the alternative though? Are we ready to shut the world down every couple of weeks?
I don't think it's a good long term solution

I agree that shutting down again is not a good long-term solution. Social distancing and mask-wearing can be implemented more strictly.

I was surprised how quickly Israel began allowing larger gatherings for simchos. It seems to me that those should be avoided to keep cases from exploding.

dancingqueen

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 6:43 pm

amother [ Maroon ] wrote:

100% the protests could have contributed to this spike. But also, a lot of these states were completely opened up without significant precautions. Look at Nevada, they opened up casinos and indoor attractions and now it’s bad there. ☹️

ra_mom

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 8:06 pm

Seems like no state or country is getting away with corona. Sad

Those that weren't yet hit hard, seem to be getting hit at reopening. Those that were hit hard already, lost so many, and their ability to open now came at a huge cost. Sad

My only hope is that the newer surges aren't as deadly and that EVERYONE will recover!

amother

Amethyst

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 8:17 pm

It's not that people don't care. Some of us can't afford to be on lockdown anymore.

We were really strict for months. My husband's job involves going to people's homes. He didn't work for months. His unemployment is still pending. How are we supposed to live? He is in a high risk catagory but he went back to work. I don't see anyone else volunteering to pay our mortgage, tuition and food bills.

tigerwife

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 8:18 pm

youngishbear wrote:

NYC didn’t see as big of a spike because the virus has already swept through the city months ago. The stability came at a huge cost. And I know people who were unable to join their local protest because of lack of SD. Certainly the photos I’ve seen appeared very unsafe.

It’s terrible that the virus is on the rise again but I do hope at least that more lives will be saved due to accumulated knowledge.

amother

Vermilion

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 8:39 pm

Ora in town wrote:

Perhaps there are people living in Florida or Texas or California...

Me! I live in Texas. This is definitely frightening.

nchr

Thu, Jun 25 2020, 8:48 pm

The US needs to have better contact tracing. They should trace where the exposure occured to help us develop better policy. We know indoors with singing is a high risk activity but if we cannot monitor every hotspot in Texas or what not it is hard to see how to prevent outbreaks moving forward. Also many of these places are struggling with lack of masks even indoors so better mask policy is a must.