New cases of the new coronavirus broke single-day records in Florida and South Carolina on Thursday, according to health officials.
The Florida Department of Health confirmed 1,698 additional cases of COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours, almost an increase of 20 percent from the state’s previous high of 1,419 reported last Thursday.
Health officials in Florida have confirmed at least 966 new positive cases every day since June 3, after the state began its reopening process last month. Florida has more than 67,456 coronavirus cases in total and at least 2,848 deaths, according to the department.
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Visitors wearing masks walk through SeaWorld as it reopens with new security measures in place on Thursday, June 11, 2020, in Orlando, Florida. The park had been closed since mid-March to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. (Associated Press)
South Carolina also recorded a record total of 687 cases of coronavirus on Thursday – surpassing its previous record of 542, set just three days earlier – informed the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, according to WLTX-TV of Columbia. South Carolina now has at least 16,441 confirmed COVID-19 cases, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.
Florida began its reopening process in May, a month in which all 50 states began to ease their restrictions on the coronavirus. Now, a sudden increase in cases has been reported in much of the United States, amid street protests and reversals of closure policies by states.
In the past few days, the United States has seen a 36.5% increase in daily cases, a notable difference compared to the top 10 countries with the highest number of COVID-19 infections to date, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) obtained by Yahoo News.
It turns out that many Americans have long awaited the end of quarantine and the return to normalcy. Concerns about the serious economic center have also accelerated the reopening process.
Now in June, cell phone data suggests that people are moving in the United States at a level that is about 61% of what was considered normal behavior before the pandemic.
“It seems that we in the US have given up and accepted this disease as a facet of life,” said Jeffrey Shaman, from Columbia University School of Public Health to NPR. “It didn’t have to be that way, and it’s still not going forward.”
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A total of 12 other states outside of Florida and South Carolina have also recorded an average peak of seven days for new cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began. The states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, according to data from the Washington Post.
“Worse times are ahead,” said Joe Gerald, a public health researcher at the University of Arizona, who is helping to provide projections for the state’s health department, he told the newspaper. “The preponderance of evidence indicates that transmission in the community is increasing.”
Although testing has increased, some experts believe this is not the main reason for the sudden increase in cases.
“It is very clear that it is a real increase in the spread of the community,” Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, told Phoenix radio station KJZZ. “It is not an additional test artifact.”
Health officials also fear that protests across the country, which saw thousands of people in close contact with each other, could contribute to the spread of COVID-19 – even if they wear masks.
“Masks may help, but masks are more physical separation,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci in an interview on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “And when you have congregations like the ones we saw at the demonstrations … that’s a risk.”
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Others fear that after months of quarantine and believing that the worst is over – tiredness in relation to the virus has already settled.
“What is worrying to me is that there is a lot of fatigue in the general population,” Wafaa El-Sadr, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, told The Guardian.
“People feel that they have distanced themselves and are thirsty to get out and connect. If this wave demands that we retreat, how can we convince people to do so? I feel like we’ve taken five steps forward and now maybe one step back. “
Due to the recent increase in cases, Ashish Jha, head of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said in an interview with CNN that he believes the virus’s fatalities would almost double in the U.S. with the fall, unless measures are taken to limit its spread. .
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Amid the sudden increase in cases, recommended measures to limit the spread of the virus include contact tracking, increased testing, wearing a mask and continued social detachment, Reuters reported.