Experts warn of virus’s surge north
States still relatively unscathed are urged to take precautions
LOS ANGELES — As public health officials warned Friday that the coronavirus posed new risks to parts of the Midwest and South, enhanced federal payments that helped avert financial ruin for millions of unemployed Americans were set to expire — leaving threadbare safety nets offered by individual states to catch them.
Since early in the pandemic, the federal government has added $600 to the weekly unemployment checks that states send. That increase ends this week, and with Congress still haggling over next steps, most states will not be able to offer nearly as much.
Aside from the pandemic’s economic damage, the virus itself threatens to overwhelm parts of the country that have been relatively unscathed.
White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx warned in a television interview that the surge of cases in the South and Southwest could make its way north.
“What started out very much as a Southern and Western epidemic is starting to move up the East Coast, into Tennessee, Arkansas, up into Missouri, up across Colorado,” Birx told NBC’s “Today” show. She implored people to wear masks, wash hands and keep at least 6 feet apart.
In Missouri, confirmed cases have risen sharply since Republican Gov. Mike Parson allowed the state to reopen in mid-June. The number of positive tests set a record three days in a row this week.
Masks continue to be a national flashpoint. Police in Green Bay, Wisconsin, were investigating death threats made against elected city officials over a new mandate requiring face coverings in public buildings.
Birx said health professionals have “called out the next set of cities” where they see early warning signs because if those cities make changes now they “won’t become a Phoenix.” Arizona’s sprawling capital has suffered a severe outbreak, though Birx said Friday the federal government was seeing encouraging declines in positive test results there and in San Antonio, which like much of Texas has been hard hit.
The governor of Vermont, where cases have been among the nation’s lowest, responded Friday by issuing an order requiring people to wear masks in public. “We are still in very good shape, but it is time to prepare,” Republican Gov. Phil Scott said.
Sunbelt states that have been besieged in recent weeks are still struggling. Florida, for example, reported 135 new deaths and 12,000 new cases, pushing its total of identified infections past 400,000.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has increased health protection requirements in at least 21 bases in recent weeks, particularly across Texas and Florida, as the COVID-19 rate continues to spike among service members, more than doubling in the last month.
The escalating numbers mirror the increase in coronavirus cases in the general public across the country. The military, however, still has a dramatically low death rate, losing three active-duty service members out of nearly 23,000 virus cases so far.
The moves to higher alert levels at the defense installations are somewhat limited because the military as a whole has been much slower to loosen pandemic restrictions than cities and states around the country, particularly sections of the South and West facing record infection levels.
That more cautious approach has endured despite President Donald Trump repeatedly urging businesses to reopen and the country to get back to normal to ease economic woes.
Defense leaders say the recent spike has not affected the military’s ability to train or respond when needed. It will, however, affect decisions on whether Defense Department schools will have in-person classes or not.
According to data obtained by The Associated Press, more than 45% of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps installations around the globe are currently at what is called “health condition Charlie,” which involves “substantial risk” of “sustained community transmission” of the virus. A significant number of those bases are spread across the South and West and have stayed at or gone back to level C. That’s one step below the most restrictive level, on a scale that goes from Zero to Level D — Severe.
Under level C, base access and travel is significantly restricted, in-person gatherings such as school and other activities are likely cancelled, and more people must work from home. Service members are told to prepare for “limited access” to supplies and services. Under level B, social distancing and other health procedures are still recommended, but more movement, travel and inperson gatherings are allowed. Service members are told to avoid “unnecessary travel,” particularly to virus hot zones.
Nearly all the rest of the bases are at level B, which is moderate risk, and a small number of very remote bases, such as Air Force installations in Norway and Greenland, are at level Aplus.
The military has relied largely on its local commanders to make decisions about their base restrictions.