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BISMARCK: North Dakota has become the 35th U.S. state to require face covers to be worn in public, as governors across the country face a surge in coronavirus infections threatening to flood their homes. health care systems.
North Dakota joined 38 other states this month in reporting record daily jumps in new cases, another 17 with record deaths and another 25 with a record number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals, according to a Reuters tally.
“Our situation has changed, and we must change with it,” North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum said in a statement Friday night.
The mask order, similar to other state mandates, requires face covers to be worn in most indoor public places and “in outdoor public and commercial places when physical distance cannot be maintained.”
Burgum also ordered restaurants and bars to limit diners to 50 percent of capacity and to close at 10 p.m., a move several other governors have taken, citing data linking late-night gatherings to a greater spread of the virus.
READ: Oregon and New Mexico order lockdowns while other US states resist
READ: New York rolls out curbs as COVID-19 takes over the US and Europe
New cases across the country rose to a daily record of more than 177,000 on Friday, the fourth consecutive day a record high was set, according to a Reuters tally of figures from US public health agencies.
The increase is putting pressure on many state health care systems, as the number of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals rose to an all-time high of 68,141 on Friday.
Some governors, including Iowa Republican Kim Reynolds, warned this week that their hospitals were near capacity.
Iowa is among the 15 states without a masks mandate, but Reynolds tiptoed in that direction Tuesday by requiring they be worn at large social gatherings and in personal service businesses such as barber shops and hair salons.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended the use of masks, and a widely cited model has estimated that a nationwide mandate could save 68,000 lives by next spring. Still, the issue has become politicized and several Republican governors refuse to demand it, saying it is a matter of personal responsibility, not government mandate.
Republican President Donald Trump has rarely been seen wearing a mask, except when he was struck by the virus last month. His Democratic successor, President-elect Joe Biden has sported one in almost every public appearance.
But the country’s patchwork of state responses to the pandemic will likely remain intact after Biden’s inauguration on Jan.20, according to Dr. Vivek Murthy, head of Biden’s coronavirus advisory board.
In a television interview on Friday, Murthy, a former US surgeon general, also denied Trump’s campaign accusation that the incoming administration was planning a national shutdown, like the one that froze much of the economy this spring.
READ: Biden’s aide Murthy says there is no planned COVID-19 lockdown across America as west coast states advise against travel
Several governors, while not taking such a politically unpopular step, urged residents to stay home as much as possible, including Nevada Democrat Steve Sisolak, who said Friday night that he became the fourth governor to be infected with the virus.
“This weekend, stay home,” Sisolak posted on Twitter on Saturday. “If you have to go, wear a mask and try to limit its duration. This is serious Nevada.”
With Thanksgiving and other holidays on the horizon, several governors, including those of California, Oregon and Washington, urged residents to avoid venturing out of state.
Getting together with family and friends, some governors have warned, can spread the virus through what New York Democrat Andrew Cuomo called “spread in the living room.”
The governors of six northeastern states, the region hardest hit in the early months of the pandemic, were scheduled to hold an emergency meeting this weekend to coordinate responses, Cuomo said.
On Friday, Detroit public schools suspended in-person learning, while New York City, with the nation’s largest school system, approached a trigger point that would close its 1,800 school buildings.
Since the pandemic began, the virus has infected 10,759,565 people in the United States, killing 244,324 of them, according to a Reuters tally.
The widely cited model from the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects nearly 195,000 more deaths by March 1. The biggest monthly peak in the pandemic will occur in January, when more than 65,000 people are expected to die, the institute said.
A universal mask mandate in the country would save more than 68,000 lives by March 1, he said.
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