U.S. Hits 11 Million COVID Cases as Restrictions Increase and Holiday Worries Grow

COVID-19 has hit yet another daunting milestone in the United States, surpassing a whopping 11 million cases on Sunday. As another resurgence of the virus is spreading across the nation and states are introducing new restrictions for their residents, the fate of the holidays now lands in the laps of Americans.

What We Know:

• The latest resurgence has proven to be the most alarming to date, with 1 million new cases in the past week. Numbers indicate that around 156,400 came from this past Saturday alone. The streak has now reached its eleventh day that the country has faced a constant rate of over 100,000 daily cases.
• More than a dozen states, including Montana, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Colorado, have all broken their daily records of cases over the weekend. Interestingly enough, Georgia was the only state in the country to see a marginal decrease in the past two weeks, but experts don’t expect that trend to hold.
• In the state of Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee recently announced the closure of indoor dining on Sunday. This restriction will take effect on restaurants by the end of Monday of this week and will extend through Dec. 14^th. Aside from eateries, retails stores will be limiting customer occupancy to 25 percent. Other businesses such as fitness facilities and gyms will close.

1 in 18 Chicagoans have active COVID-19 infections as of Nov. 13.

Wear your masks. Wash your hands. Watch your distance.

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) November 16, 2020

• Moving back to the east coast, Washington followed similar decisions made in Illinois earlier. A massive stay-at-home order was imposed in Chicago on Monday. The order will also begin by the end of Mondays and will last 30 days. The Windy City’s Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, warned that a huge loss of life could happen should they decide not to issue one.
• Next up is Mount Vernon, New York, located near the COVID-19 hotspot of New Rochelle. Mount Vernon also issued a “stay-at-home advisory” beginning Monday as well. In other portions of the state such as New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio had other plans. He stated schools would remain open despite the positivity rate inching towards the 3 percent threshold that would trigger a complete shutdown.
• Another notable example is back over in Colorado where Gov. Jared Polis reversed the state back to phase one 1 of reopening. This comes at a time where over 1,000 people are hospitalized for COVID in the state. Polis is hopeful that hospital bed capacity can be increased by at least 50 percent should the need arise, but preferably before hospitals become overwhelmed.

As health officials project that an increase in cases nationwide could result in 1,000 deaths a week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan also pushed out a new order on Sunday partially shutting down their neck of the woods. Though these orders affect businesses, they certainly won’t affect residents during the holidays. It will all come down to how responsible the American people are willing to be.