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The United States posted that grim death toll on Monday, as almost every state has made plans to partially reopen some businesses, something critics fear could contribute to an increase in daily death reports.
In New York, where there have been more than 26,000 deaths, coronavirus infection and hospitalization rates dropped to where they were almost two months ago, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. On the last day, 488 coronavirus patients were admitted to hospitals, similar to the state total for March 19, and 161 people died on the last day, about the same level of deaths as on March 26.
“In many ways, we are on the other side of the mountain,” he said Monday.
Cuomo emphasized that the reopening will be done “intelligently” and compared its reopening plan to that of other states that are reopening despite not complying with CDC guidelines for doing so.
According to Johns Hopkins, more than 1.3 million people in the United States have contracted coronavirus since the first cases reported in January.
States move toward reopening
States began to establish reopening plans in In late April, with the governors of South Carolina and Georgia leading the way with some of the most aggressive plans, and by this week, almost every state has begun to relax the restrictions. But not all.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker revealed Monday the stipulations of his state’s four-phase plan, with a target date for the first step May 18, if key data in the community continues a downward trend.
Other states have filed for stage reopens despite failing to comply with federal guidelines, saying they have been guided by the advice of medical experts about their data.
The strange disease that could be related to the virus.
In New York, health officials are now looking at a mysterious disease that appears in children who they believe may be related to the virus.
The condition, which doctors call “pediatric multisystemic inflammatory syndrome,” left dozens of New York children hospitalized, many of whom tested positive for the virus or had their antibodies, according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
On Sunday, the governor said state authorities were investigating 85 cases, mostly young children and children of primary school age.
Many of the children had fever and symptoms similar to toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, which causes inflammation of the walls of blood vessels, including those that supply blood to the heart. In rare cases, it can lead to deadly limitations in blood flow.
Undersecretary of Health Admiral Brett Giroir, a pediatric ICU physician, said Monday that a syndrome like this had previously been seen in a new coronavirus.
“We know what the basic treatment is, but this is a little different than what we normally see,” he said, adding that it was a small percentage of cases, but “it’s pretty scary.”
Similar cases have been reported internationally, including in the UK, Spain and Italy.
Although coronavirus most severely affects older people with pre-existing conditions, the children’s cases suggest that no age group is immune and raises new questions about how to safely reopen schools in the fall.
A battle for coronavirus checkpoints
In South Dakota, a Native American community established checkpoints along state and US highways in an effort to track the virus and prevent it from spreading.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem sent letters on Friday to the leaders of the Oglala and Cheoux Sioux tribes of the Cheyenne River demanding that the checkpoints be removed.
Noem said Monday that the tribes were halting essential traffic and first responders.
“We have situations where people have tried to travel, not stop, and have been changed,” Noem explained. “We have people who have been going to these areas that have been involved in essential services that have not been allowed to move forward.”
Tribes have disputed such allegations on CNN.
The Sioux tribe of the Cheyenne River refuse to shoot them down.
“On behalf of our people, we must keep them at checkpoints and continue to do the things that we are doing, until it is safe,” tribe president Harold Frazier told CNN’s Sara Sidner.
Noem has said the state could take the matter to federal court.
The 12,000 people living in the 3,500-square-mile reserve, Frazier said, depend on an eight-bed facility and do not have an intensive care unit (ICU). According to state data, about 198 Native Americans in South Dakota have been infected with the virus.
CNN’s Holly Yan, Elizabeth Joseph, Sara Sidner, Leslie Perrot, Artemis Moshtaghian, and Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.
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