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WASHINGTON: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s top coronavirus adviser said on Friday (Nov. 13) that there were no plans for a widespread national shutdown to stem the growing COVID-19 pandemic, while three states in the West Coast jointly called for the non-travel essential to stop.
The warning against unnecessary traffic came as the daily increase in COVID-19 cases in the United States rose to a record of more than 177,000 on Friday, the fourth day in a row that a new all-time record was set, according to a tally by Reuters figures. from U.S. public health agencies.
California, Oregon and Washington urged residents to avoid venturing out of state, citing concerns raised by health experts that the upcoming holiday travel season would accelerate already alarming spikes in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown took the additional step of ordering social gatherings limited to no more than six people, effective immediately, a restriction she said she was willing to enforce.
“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you, to stop your social gatherings … and your house parties and limit your social interactions to six or fewer, no more than one household,” Brown said.
READ: Oregon and New Mexico order lockdowns while other US states resist
Similarly, New Mexico Acting Health Secretary Billy Jiménez extended a three-week ban on gatherings of more than five people who do not live in the same household until late November, along with a directive advising residents residents of the state who stay “in their homes for all but the most essential activities and services.”
That order also requires that they cover their faces in public and forces the closure of workplaces that are not defined as “essential businesses,” such as supermarkets, farms, nurseries, banks, “large” retailers, factories, and healthcare facilities. .
“A SERIES OF RESTRICTIONS”
The dire situation has prompted a growing list of state and local governments to reimpose the restrictions they eased during a summer ebb in COVID-19 outbreaks.
Governors of six states in the Northeast, the region hardest hit in the pandemic’s first months, are planning an emergency meeting this weekend to coordinate responses, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
The country’s patchwork of measures will likely remain intact after Biden takes office on January 20 next year, following his electoral defeat of Republican President Donald Trump, the head of the Democrat’s coronavirus advisory board said.
“We are not in a place where we say the entire country is shut down,” Dr. Vivek Murthy, a former US surgeon general, told ABC’s Good Morning America.
“Right now, the way we should think of this is more of a series of constraints that we raise or lower depending on how badly a spread is playing in a specific region,” he said.
READ: Fauci does not advise Biden, sees no reason to quit Trump now
Murthy’s comments were a strong rebuttal to Trump’s repeated campaign claims that Biden intended to block the country if elected president.
Medical experts point to the rise in indoor gatherings with the onset of winter, along with lapses in social distancing and mask-wearing habits, as the main factors fueling a sinister nationwide rise in coronavirus transmissions. and the rate of positive test results for COVID-19.
The growing number of cases is beginning to deplete the resources of some hospitals and is on its way to bringing many to the brink, they warn.
“I’m 100 percent worried about the holidays,” Dr. Khalilah Gates, a lung specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, told Reuters on Friday. “We don’t have an infinite capacity to increase.”
BENCHMARKS OF PROBLEMS
In announcing the west coast travel advisory, California Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly said a strict mandate was scrapped due to concerns that “COVID fatigue” could spark a backlash. , leading people to behave in less safe ways.
The notice urges people entering or returning to the three states to self-quarantine for 14 days, the presumed incubation period for the virus.
On Thursday, California became the second state, after Texas earlier this month, to see its count of confirmed infections exceed one million, with a daily average of new cases rising nearly 50% in the first week of November. .
“This is the fastest rate of increase we have seen in California,” said Dr. Erica Pan, acting state health officer and chief epidemiologist.
READ: New York rolls out curbs as COVID-19 takes over the US and Europe
Illinois reported a record 15,433 new cases on Friday, the most of any state in a 24-hour period, surpassing the previous record of 15,300 set by Florida in July.
New daily cases rose to 177,620 on Friday, crossing the 100,000 mark for the 10th day, the Reuters tally showed.
The country has also averaged more than 1,000 deaths per day for the past seven days, a trend that was last seen in August.
The number of daily cases has more than doubled in 13 states over the past two weeks, most of them in the Midwest, according to Reuters tally.
Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, attributed some of the spikes to recent Halloween celebrations. He warned that more will come if Americans lower their guard for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Chicago has urged residents to stay home and avoid visitors for the next 30 days, including Thanksgiving.
New York City restaurants were ordered to close for indoor dining at 10 p.m., while Detroit public schools suspended in-person learning as of Friday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert on Trump’s coronavirus task force, said his advice to Biden’s transition team would be the same: continue to emphasize social distancing, avoid crowds, wear masks and wash your hands.
“The principles of public health do not change from month to month or administration to administration,” he said in an interview.
