U.S. states seeing surge in COVID-19 infections
Canadian health experts say huge spikes a cautionary tale
OTTAWA — Canadian experts looking at a surge of new COVID-19 cases in several U.S. states say it should be a warning to Canada, but not a cause for alarm.
Several states have seen huge spikes in virus cases in the past weeks. On Friday, Arizona reported 3,217 new cases and Florida recorded 4,049. In California, there were 4,351 cases, Texas saw 4,189 and Georgia saw 1,800 new cases.
All of these states have recorded numbers higher than they have seen at any point in the pandemic, and which are coming weeks after they allowed restaurants, businesses and even theatres to open up again. In many cases those businesses opened without the same distance requirements that are common in Canada.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said health experts are following the situation south of the border closely and it should serve as a cautionary tale.
“We do see all of these kinds of trends as a warning signal for us again, reminding Canadians the virus is still around, very much around in many parts of the world including the U.S,” she said.
She said failing to maintain high standards around hand-washing and physical distancing could quickly cause a surge in new infections. “We need to keep up and the moment we let go this virus could find some way of accelerating in our community,” Tam said.
The provincial and federal governments came to an agreed set of guidelines for reopening that ensured cases were on a downward trend before a province reopened and that contact tracing and testing were available.
Georgia, one of the states now seeing a surge, was one of the first U.S. states to open its economy on April 24. On that day, when businesses reopened in the state there were 608 new cases reported. A month ago it had risen to 946 and as of Friday there were 1,800 cases.
Florida, Arizona, California, and Texas all began their reopening efforts in early May and are now seeing daily case counts that are two or three times as high as at any point in the pandemic.
Ontario and Quebec, Canada’s worst hit provinces, have started their reopening plans, but they have done so regionally and gradually compared to the U.S. states. Toronto and Montreal, which were particularly hard hit, still have many restrictions in place.
Ontario saw 175 new cases on Sunday, while Quebec saw just 92.
Dr. Zain Chagla, a specialist in infectious diseases and an assistant professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, said everything he has seen from the U.S. indicates they simply opened up too fast.
“We saw a preview of what not to do in the United States is not just wait till you get a peak, let the cases drop a little bit and then open the door.”
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute said it also appears to him the states opened up too soon.
“It’s probably some combination of poor policy that doesn’t take into account how contagious this is, reopening economies and lifting public health restrictions too early, people not adhering to existing public health guidelines. and then factor in barriers to health care, as well might be exacerbating numbers.”
He said mask wearing in Canada hasn’t reached the levels it should be, but it is slowly increasing and there is no political debate about its value. “Many parts of the United States have politicized the pandemic and politicized the public health. interventions have politicized mask wearing, and they’ve done themselves a tremendous disservice by doing so.”