20 States See Increases in Coronavirus Cases Amid Reopening, Protests

WHILE AREAS CONTINUE their phased reopenings and many residents leave the house to protest, 20 states and Puerto Rico are seeing increases in their coronavirus cases, with over a dozen reporting their highest seven-day averages.

Cases seem to be easing in previous hotspots like New York City and taking hold in areas with smaller populations.

According to data from The New York Times, 20 states and Puerto Rico have seen an increase in their reported number of cases in the past two weeks: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Washington.

And in some states, cases are coming in higher than ever.

The Washington Post reported that over a dozen states and Puerto Rico reported record seven-day averages this month: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Health officials in the U.S. report more than 1.9 million cases of the virus and nearly 112,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Experts have become concerned that a coronavirus fatigue has hit the U.S. as it continues its push to reopen the economy and protesters take to the streets to demand justice over the death of George Floyd.

“We’re very concerned that our public health message isn’t resonating,” Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Congress last week. “We continue to try to figure out how to penetrate the message with different groups.”

The previous shutdowns helped, according to research. A recent study found that emergency health measures through early April averted an estimated 60 million coronavirus cases in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization this week said that the global coronavirus situation is worsening.

“More than 100,000 cases have been reported on nine of the past 10 days. Yesterday, more than 136,000 cases were reported, the most in a single day so far,” WHO’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference on Monday.