After 5000 Universities and Colleges recently reopened across the U.S., new hotspots of coronavirus cases are emerging. States such as South Dakota and Iowa are beginning to see an uptick in confirmed cases resulting in uncertainty when we might see progress made with offsetting the virus.
As Americans venture back out to school, work and daily activities, it is still important that everyone continues to take precaution against the virus. Amesh Adaljia of Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security said, “it’s going to be kind of this rolling fire, with certain flare-ups, that occur in different parts of the country at different times. This is a virus that’s established itself into the population.”
This week the U.S. surpassed 6 million confirmed cases with areas in the Midwest skyrocketing. Earlier this week, Iowa saw an increase of 10.3%. With Iowa having no state-wide mask mandate in place, they have recorded over 65,000 new cases with a 50% increase over the last two weeks. Iowa State University reported a 28.8% of their students and faculty tested positive for the virus.
Ohio recently saw an increase in cases, moving from bigger cities like Cleveland and Columbus to more rural areas after students returned to school and participate in social gatherings. The state reported that they had over 1,400 new cases, the most they have seen in over a month.
In an interview recently Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, “Schools did not have the capability of dealing with students who got infected. Schools should have tested students before they returned and planned “intermittent surveillance” to watch for rising cases.”
So far across America, 36 states have recently had students or faculty test positive for the virus with 8,700 confirmed cases.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/30/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html
