Cases surging as US in ‘free fall’

As of Tuesday night, the rates of coronavirus infection are trending up in 31 states, and doctors are worried about more hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks. Daily infection rate records have been broken in many of these states over the last couple weeks. And we are arguably worse off today than at any point before in the pandemic. Local leaders in some of these areas are saying they believe they reopened too soon. That, combined with people ignoring key steps to keep the virus from spreading, has led to the spike in cases, many experts say. "We are in free fall," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. Added to that are the concerns about large gatherings during the recent Fourth of July holiday.  "You see the footage of what happened this past weekend. And people are either naive to the influence of their actions, or they're simply resigned to ignore it," Walensky said. Almost three million Americans have been infected with Covid-19, including a growing number of young adults. More than 131,000 Americans have died from Covid-19, while some survivors are grappling with long-term complications.