With case counts rising, U.S. leaders push stricter measures.
Across the United States, leaders grappling with surging caseloads and a rising death toll on Friday introduced new measures intended to curb the coronavirus outbreak’s severity, some in places where the virus had looked to be in retreat.
For the second time, more than 70,000 coronavirus cases were announced in the United States, according to a New York Times database. A day earlier, the country set a record with 75,600 new cases, the 11th time in the past month that the daily record had been broken.
The outbreak is so widespread that 18 states have been placed in a so-called red zone because they have more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people per week, according to an unpublished report distributed this week by the White House coronavirus task force, which urged many states to take stricter steps to contain the spread.
The states — Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah — constitute more than a third of the country.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new rules on Friday that would force many of the state’s districts to teach remotely when school starts next month and require most of its more than six million students to wear masks when they do attend class. This week, the state also announced a sweeping rollback of plans to reopen businesses.
More than 10,100 cases were announced on Friday in California, the state’s second-highest daily total yet.
In Florida, where more than 11,400 cases and more than 125 deaths were reported on Friday, some localities added curfews. With its hospitals reaching capacity, Broward County imposed a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. beginning Friday. Curfews were also imposed in the city of Miami Beach and the rest of Miami-Dade County.
Noting the rise in cases, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testified before a House committee that he thought Congress should consider automatically forgiving all small loans that had been given to businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program.
The record for U.S. daily cases has more than doubled since June 24, when the country registered 37,014 cases, after a lull in the outbreak that kept the previous record, 36,738, standing for two months. Daily virus fatalities had decreased slightly until last week, when they began rising again.
N.Y.C. will ease some outdoor restrictions, but many indoor activities, like malls and museums, will stay closed.
New York City will enter a limited version of its fourth phase of reopening next week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday.
Starting Monday, outdoor venues like zoos and botanical gardens will be allowed to operate at a limited capacity, Mr. Cuomo said. But citing rising case numbers in other large states, like Texas and Arizona, he said stringent limits would remain on indoor activities.
Malls, museums and cultural institutions, for example, will stay closed. Indoor dining will also remain on hold.
“The second wave is going to be the confluence of the lack of compliance and the local governments’ lack of enforcement, plus the viral spread coming back from the other states,” Mr. Cuomo said. “It is going to happen.”
Mr. Cuomo said the state would revisit the city’s relatively curtailed Phase 4 as the “facts change.”
The rest of New York State, which has already moved into Phase 4, does not have the same limitations on indoor businesses. But New York City will be allowed to have groups of up to 50 people, as well as indoor religious gatherings operating with capacity constraints. Outdoor film productions and professional sports events without audiences can also resume.
In the statement, Ginsburg said she began a course of chemotherapy on May 19 after a periodic scan in February, followed by a biopsy, revealed lesions on her liver. She said her recent hospitalizations to remove gallstones and to treat an infection were unrelated to the recurrence of the cancer.
The statement added: "I am tolerating chemotherapy well and am encouraged by the success of my current treatment. I will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay, and am able to maintain an active daily routine. Throughout, I have kept up with opinion writing and all other Court work. I have often said I would remain a member of the Court as long as I can do the job full steam. I remain fully able to do that."
Those who have seen Ginsburg in recent months say that she is cheerful and fully engaged and that while she seemed to lose some weight during the initial phase of the lockdown, she has been gaining back those pounds of late.
That said, this is her fifth bout with cancer in 21 years and the third bout in the last 19 months. Her surgeries and treatments over the years for colon and pancreatic cancer have likely contributed to some of the gut problems, unrelated to her cancer, that pop up from time to time.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Cancer Again, Says She Will Remain On The Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says that her cancer has returned and that chemotherapy is yielding positive results. In a statement, she said that her most recent scan, on July 7, "indicated significant reduction of the liver lesions and no new disease."In the statement, Ginsburg said she began a course of chemotherapy on May 19 after a periodic scan in February, followed by a biopsy, revealed lesions on her liver. She said her recent hospitalizations to remove gallstones and to treat an infection were unrelated to the recurrence of the cancer.
The statement added: "I am tolerating chemotherapy well and am encouraged by the success of my current treatment. I will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay, and am able to maintain an active daily routine. Throughout, I have kept up with opinion writing and all other Court work. I have often said I would remain a member of the Court as long as I can do the job full steam. I remain fully able to do that."
Those who have seen Ginsburg in recent months say that she is cheerful and fully engaged and that while she seemed to lose some weight during the initial phase of the lockdown, she has been gaining back those pounds of late.
That said, this is her fifth bout with cancer in 21 years and the third bout in the last 19 months. Her surgeries and treatments over the years for colon and pancreatic cancer have likely contributed to some of the gut problems, unrelated to her cancer, that pop up from time to time.
In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said 36 new virus cases were traced to a single football team in a news conference Friday. The governor, a Democrat, said team members were not wearing masks in a weight room and as a result 18 players, three coaches and 15 family members were sickened.
Lowe’s and Home Depot on Friday became the latest retailers that will begin requiring all their customers to wear masks. Lowe’s said the new policy would take effect on Monday, adding that it would supply masks to any customer who needed one. Home Depot’s mask requirement will start Wednesday. The company said children and customers with medical conditions would not be required to wear facial coverings.