When will the quarantine be over? The latest Coronavirus update that we’re writing about asks that looming question. With this Coronavirus Update, we acknowledge that the answer is completely unclear. Health experts have stressed that the United States must rapidly increase its ability to test people for the virus in order to reopen without sparking a new wave of infections.
Governors have asked the federal government to help ramp up that testing capability – the federal government refuses to take responsibility for those shortages. Many Americans are fed up with more than a month of lockdowns, restrictions, and widespread unemployment, which, as of last week, peaked over 20 million. They have taken to the streets demanding for an immediate reopening in protests around the country.
These protestors have, in no small part, been egged on by President Trump, who has shifted blame onto governors and public health officials. The protestors, emboldened by their president, blame those same governors and medical professionals in limiting their “liberty” and “freedom” with restrictions designed to stop the rapid spread of COVID19 and overwhelming hospitals.
This has led to protests throughout the country. But we have also seen counterprotests – medical professionals standing in front of the cars of protestors aiming to block traffic and entranceways to hospitals.
The states who have initiated lockdowns have slowed, not stopped, the virus. In New York, Governor Cuomo said that the state has passed the peak of its outbreak – but keep in mind that 500 people died and more than 1,300 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 just on Sunday.
In all, the numbers are astonishing. At least 40,700 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 and more than 760,750 cases of the Coronavirus were logged in the US as of Monday morning, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Some states have loosened aspects of the shutdown and several regional groups of states have discussed strategies to reopen with each other. This is, most likely, due to a lack of clear messaging from the federal government, which has resulted in a quasi-confederacy forming between neighboring states in the West, East, and Midwest.
Harvard researchers warn that if the country wants the economy to open back up, and stay open without another shutdown, testing must go up to at least 500,000 people per day. National testing currently stands at 150,000 per day.
Despite medical and professional opinions regarding a safe re-opening of the country warning that a preemptive opening would only delay the full opening of the economy and country, many civilians held protests across the country demanding to be let back to work. Protests were held in Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Utah. New York, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Missouri have planned protests later today.
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