Wave in new US states fuels raging outbreak
NEWDELHI: California and Texas marked record spikes in new Covid-19 infections on Monday to cap a week that saw the highest-ever new infections reported in the US. This latest surge in cases in the southern and western parts of the country has caused what is seen as the second wave of infections in the country, undoing gains made by north-eastern states such as New York and New Jersey.
New York led the ‘firstwave’ states that also included New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania when Covid-19 first swept through the country in the second half of March. By early April, 60% of all new cases could be traced to these five states. Since then, these regions managed to contain the virus, contributing just 6% in the last seven days.
However, this drop in cases was undone as the virus started spreading in the south-east and the western parts of the US early in June. California is among a number of states including Florida, Texas Arizona and North Carolina, battling a new wave of cases. This group of ‘secondwave’ states was responsible for less than 12% of new cases reported in the first week of April. Their contribution to the tally has grown to 55% in the last seven days.
NEW DELHI: California and Texas marked record spikes in new Covid-19 infections on Monday to cap a week that saw the highestever number of new infections reported in the United States.
This new surge in cases in the southern and western parts of the country ended up being the second wave of infections in the US, undoing gains made by northeastern states such as New York and New Jersey that finally controlled their outbreaks to a large extent.
The state of New York (with NYC as the epicentre) led the ‘first-wave states’ that also included New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania when the coronavirus first swept through the country in March. By early April, 60% of all new cases in the US could be traced to just these five states. Since then, their contribution to new cases dropped to just 6% in the last seven days.
Cases in these ‘first-wave’ states peaked in early April, which resulted in a clear flattening of the new infection curve from April 10 (See chart).
However, this drop was undone as the virus started spreading in the southeast and the west. California is among a number of US states including Florida, Texas Arizona and North Carolina, battling a new wave of infections as the nation emerges from weeks of clampdowns. The ‘second-wave’ states were responsible for less than 3% of new cases reported in the final week of March. Since then, their contribution to the infections has grown to 30% in the last seven days.