Curbs opposed despite surge
Days before a presidential election that has spotlighted President Donald Trump’s scattershot response to the pandemic, the Covid-19 coronavirus is continuing its resurgence across the US, with total confirmed cases surpassing 9 million.
The number of new infections reported daily is rising in 47 states. They include Nebraska and South Dakota, where the number of new cases yesterday topped previous highs for each state.
But even as a new surge of coronavirus infections sweeps the nation, officials in many hardhit states are resisting taking stronger action to slow the spread, with pleas from health experts running up against political calculation and public fatigue.
The record increases in new cases have eclipsed the spikes that set off national alarms during the northern spring and summer. During those outbreaks, first in the Northeast and then in Sun Belt states, many governors closed schools and businesses and restricted public gatherings.
But the autumn resurgence of the virus, despite being far more widespread, has brought a decidedly more limited response in many states. Most are led by Republican governors backing a president who insists, falsely, that the country is getting the virus under control.
Over the past two weeks, an average of more than 76,000 new cases have been reported daily, up from about 54,000 in midOctober, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Deaths are also rising, from about 700 to more than 800 a day.
The virus has now killed more than 229,000 Americans.
Nevertheless, many officials have resisted calls to enact measures like statewide mask mandates or stricter curbs on the size of gatherings, casting the response to the virus as a matter of individual decision-making.
‘‘ At the end of the day, personal responsibility is the only way. People will either choose or not choose to social distance, or choose to wear a mask or not,’’ said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican.
A study released this week shows that areas of Tennessee where people are not required to wear masks are seeing the most hospitalisations.
In Iowa, where a record 606 patients were hospitalised yesterday, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has rejected mask requirements and said Iowans must learn to live with the virus.
The pandemic has put similar pressures on states with Democratic governors, but the politics have played out differently.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has repeatedly tried to impose restrictions but has been stymied by the Republican-controlled legislature. She is considering calling lawmakers into a special session to impose a statewide mask mandate.
In Utah, Republican Governor Gary Herbert has ordered mask mandates and limited social gatherings to 10 people or fewer only in counties with the highest transmission rates, not the entire state.
Herbert said yesterday he was
‘‘disgusted’’ after someone shot at a state health department office, a day after anti-mask protesters gathered outside the home of state epidemiologist Dr Angela Dunn, who recommended that the state reinstate restrictions to avoid hospitals becoming overwhelmed.
Italy yesterday added a record 31,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in 24 hours.
Health Ministry official Gianni Rezza said the epidemic
was ‘‘ galloping . . . The virus is circulating, and it’s circulating fast’’.
Rezza said any improvements from restrictions would take at least two to four weeks.
Italy this week closed restaurants, bars and cafes in the evenings and shut down gyms, pools, theatres and cinemas for 30 days.
Italy’s total confirmed cases stand at more than 647,000. With 199 more deaths yesterday, the confirmed death toll is more than 38,000.
Belgium has imposed a partial lockdown in a new bid to gain control of the pandemic, which has hit the country worse than any other in the European Union.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control yesterday ranked Belgium as the worst- affected nation in the 27-nation bloc, with 1600 cases per 100,000 people. Hotspots like Spain and Italy have less than a third of that total.
France, with proportionally fewer than half the cases, announced a second, full nationwide lockdown on Thursday.
The Czech parliament is extending a state of emergency to November 17 amid a record surge in coronavirus cases.
More than 7000 people are hospitalised with the virus, putting the country’s health system under pressure. The Czech Republic has 310,068 total confirmed cases, with 161,050 cases in the last two weeks. Total confirmed deaths stand at 2862, with 908 in the last week.
Clashes erupted yesterday in central Barcelona between riot police and a hundreds-strong crowd protesting the mandatory closure of bars, restaurants and other businesses as authorities struggle to rein in a sharp coronavirus resurgence.
The riots were the most violent that Spain has seen so far against pandemic-related restrictions, and followed similar unrest in France, Italy and other European countries.
Health ministry data shows that 25,595 new infections were confirmed yesterday, a new record that brings the total caseload since February to 1.18 million. The government has admitted that the real tally could be over 3 million. With 239 new fatalities, the total death toll rose to 35,878.
Four tourists have been arrested in Brazil for allegedly falsifying Covid-19 tests in an attempt to reach what some say is the world’s most beautiful beach.
The two men and two women were arrested after landing in a private jet on Fernando de Noronha, a group of islands off northern Brazil.
TripAdvisor users rated Fernando de Noronha’s Sancho Bay as the world’s top beach in 2020. The islands reopened to tourists on October 10 but require a negative Covid-19 test carried out no earlier than one day before departure.
‘‘At the end of the day, personal responsibility is the only way.’’ Tennessee Governor Bill Lee