America closes in on 5 million virus cases
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BOSTON — ties and weddings, summer camps, concerts, crowded bars and restaurants, shopping trips without masks Amer-
— icans’ resistance to curbs on everyday life is seen as a key reason the U.S. has racked up more confirmed coronavirus deaths and infections by far than any other country.
The nation has recorded more than 155,000 dead in a little more than six months and is fast approaching an almost off-the-charts 5 million COVID-19 infections.
Some Americans have resisted wearing masks and social distancing, calling such precautions an over-the-top response or an infringement on their liberty. Public health experts say such behavior has been compounded by confusing and inconsistent guidance from politicians and a patchwork quilt of approaches to containing the scourge by county, state and federal governments.
“The thing that’s maddening is country after country and state after state have shown us how we can contain the virus,” said Dr. Jonathan Quick, who is leading a pandemic initiative for the Rockefeller Foun- dation. “It’s not like we don’t know what works. We do.”
The number of confirmed infections in the U.S. has topped 4.7 million, with new cases running at over 60,000 a day. While that’s down from a peak of well over 70,000 in the second half of July, cases are on the rise in 26 states, many of them in the South and West, and deaths are climb- ing in 35 states.
On average, the number of COVID-19 deaths per day in the U.S. over the past two weeks has gone from about 780 to 1,056, according to an Asso- ciated Press analysis.
In Massachusetts, leading physicians, including the president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, have been calling on Republican Gov. Charlie Baker to consider scaling back the state’s phased reopening because of an uptick in cases.
Massachusetts health offi- cials said they are investigating at least a half-dozen new clusters of cases connected to such events as a lifeguard party, a high school graduation party, a prom party, an unsanctioned football camp and a packed harbor cruise trip.
One recent house party on Cape Cod has led to more than a dozen new cases and prompted some restaurants to close or limit service at the height of tourist season because seasonal workers had attended the gathering.
Elsewhere around the state, a Springfield hospital is dealing with an outbreak of more than 40 cases linked to a staffer who recently returned from an out-of-state vacation and then spread the virus to colleagues while eating lunch in a break room.