Thursday, June 11, 2020

States that opened up earliest show big spikes in in COVID-19 cases

Well, surprise, surprise. Most of the US states that opened up earliest and most comprehensively are now seeing new surges in COVID-19 cases.
Texas is setting new case records, but it nevertheless continues to push forward in relaxing restrictions, opening more businesses, and increasing the capacities of those that are already open. This is not how things are supposed to work.
Among 20 states seeing large recent increases in new cases, particularly in the west of the country, early-opening states like Texas, Arizona, Arkansas and California are seeing particularly big spikes, and some are now worried that their health systems will not be able to cope. Only a few states still have active stay-at-home orders in place, although the extent to which different states have opened up varies greatly. Interestingly, most of the new wave of cases is among younger people, in the 20-44 year age range (and we still have the anti-racism march infection spikes to come...)
The USA continues to lead the pack in coronavirus cases and deaths, and continues to show how not to deal with a pandemic. Long live the land of the free!

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