U.S. efforts ‘inadequate’ as deaths, cases explode
IOWACITY, Iowa— All key measures of the country’s effectiveness in managing the pandemic are heading in the wrong direction, with hospitalizations, deaths and cases skyrocketing.
In its weekly internal report, the White House coronavirus task force warned of an “aggressive, unrelenting” spread of the coronavirus across the country “without evidence of improvement but rather, further deterioration,” a senior administration official said Tuesday.
The official said the task force concluded that existing efforts to slow the spread “are inadequate and must be increased to flatten the curve” and that Thanksgiv-
ing travel and gatherings could “amplify transmission considerably.
More than 73,000 people — an all-time high — were hospitalized with the virus in theU.S. as ofMonday, an increase of over 3,000 from just a day earlier, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Hospitals are running out of space, and nurses and doctors in Kansas are converting waiting areas to patient rooms and spending upwards of eight hours on the phone trying to secure beds at other hospitals.
More than 166,000 newly confirmed infections were reported Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The average number of newcases per day has more than doubled over the past few weeks.
The virus is blamed for more than 1.3million deathsworldwide, andtheU.S. isontrack toreachthe grim milestone of 250,000 deaths this week.
Deaths per day in the U.S. have climbed to an average of 1,145, up from 828 two weeks ago. Wisconsin reported 92 new deaths Tuesday, shattering its daily record of 66 set last week.
Citing the alarming surge, top officials at the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association urged President Donald Trump in a letter Tuesday to share information with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to help “save countless lives.”
The deadly rise is forcing state and local officials to adjust their blueprints for fighting the virus, with Republican governors adopting mask mandates — skeptically, in at least one case — and schools scrapping plans to reopen classrooms.
The steps face pushback from those who question the science behind mask wearing and social distancing and fear the new restrictions will kill offmore jobs and trample on their civil liberties.
In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds had pushed back against a mask man
date for months but imposed a limited one Tuesday, becoming the latest GOP holdout to change course on face coverings.
At the same time, she claimed “there’s science on both sides” about whether masks reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
With Thanksgiving coming up next week, public health officials are bracing for a holiday-fueled surge. Doctors are urging families to stick to small gatherings.
Governors in Ohio, Maryland and Illinois imposed restrictions on business hours and crowd sizes Tuesday, and their counterparts in Wisconsin and Colorado proposed economic relief packages.
LosAngeles County, with a population of 10 million, also ordered business restrictions.
Since the election, Republican governors in hard-hit Iowa, North Dakota and Utah have reversed course and put in place requirements on masks, and others have extended or expanded earlier orders.
But plenty of other elected officials and residents are balking at such requirements despite the
surge. And some local lawenforcement authorities have refused to enforce mask requirements.
In Utah, dozens of people opposed to a statewide mask mandate protested outside thehomeof Gov. Gary Herbert. In South Dakota, the state with the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths per capita in November, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has no plans to issue mask requirements.
Doctors serving Idaho and eastern Oregon spent hours Tuesday trying to sway health districts, city leaders and the public to do more to stop the spread of coronavirus, warning that rationed care is looming in Idaho’s future.
But in Idaho, they were met with skepticism, as some residents in attendance denied the existence of the virus or disputed its severity. Idaho is experiencing a severe and unchecked community spread of COVID-19 in much of the state.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says masks can help protect both wearers and others nearby.
The rising infection rates are prompting some school districts to revert to remote learning or postpone a return to classroom instruction.
In South Dakota, the Rapid Cityarea school system plans to close all schools and move to virtual instruction Wednesday. The district’s latest data showed 94 students and 47 staffers with active COVID-19 cases, while 105 staff and 676 students were in quarantine after exposure.
In metro Las Vegas, the Clark County school district postponed plans to resume partial in-class instruction and will continue with remote learning through at least the end of the calendar year.
West Virginia’s largest teachers organization urged Republican Gov. Jim Justice to make public schools online-only. The state recorded more than 4,400 cases during the week ending Sunday, a 63 percent increase from the previous week.
The governor already has barred in-person instruction from Thanksgiving through Dec. 3 to avoid outbreaks from holiday travel.