Fourteen states have seen a spike in coronavirus cases just weeks after Stay at Home restrictions began to be lifted. As of Thursday, Texas, Arizona and Oregon saw the most significant outbreaks, according to Axios. Texas alone saw an increase of 51 percent in newly confirmed cases, with only a 36 percent increase in testing. Other states that saw a rise include California, Colorado, Tennessee and both North and South Carolina.
Additionally, Texas also saw an increase of all coronavirus tests that returned positive. This is particularly telling, considering that when testing is improved, the positive results go down if the outbreak is actually contained. However, all 50 states loosened at least some restrictions by Memorial Day weekend, largely against the advice of health officials who cautioned it was too soon to make such a decision. While Texas saw the largest outbreak overall, other states’ results were also troubling.
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Arizona, for example, saw 1,127 new cases, the single biggest single-day increase since reopening, which state health officials blamed squarely on reopening too soon. Will Humble, the director of Arizona’s Department of Health Services from 2009 to 2015, called the spike in cases “predictable” in an interview with KSAZ-TV Fox 10. “I’d expect to continue to see an increase in cases compared to where we were in the middle of May, because we are not using the same intervention, the-stay-at-home order, the distancing, and people are getting back to work.”
Similarly, health officials have been warning the thousands of people who’ve been protesting police brutality in response to the death of George Floyd have been advised to quarantine for at least 14 days as a means to help slow the spread. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady told NBC Chicago on Monday. “While we continue to make progress, I am concerned we may see ourselves take a step backward down the line against COVID-19,” Dr. Arwady said. “That’s because COVID-19 is caused by a virus, and that virus doesn’t care about what’s going on in the city.” She adding that the disease “still takes every opportunity it can to spread.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, has been one of the more vocal opponents of reopening too soon. However, he revealed in an interview with Stat News that his “meetings with the president have been dramatically decreased” since the daily coronavirus press conferences stopped. Though he stressed that the task force itself were still meeting seven days a week.
