Here’s everything you need to know this week.
Claire
Maldarelli July 13, 2020
Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here,
including tips
on cleaning groceries, ways to tell if your symptoms
are just allergies, and a tutorial on making your own
mask.
On Sunday, for the first
time since March, New York City’s Department of Health reported
no deaths from COVID-19, a much-needed breath of fresh air in a region that
was once the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic. However, across the
nation, coronavirus case counts vary widely, showing the stark differences in
how different regions are handling the pandemic. The number of positive case
counts continues to surge in southern and southwestern states. This past
weekend alone, there were more than 100,000 new cases of the virus, according
to data from state and local health agencies and analyzed by The New York Times. Here’s the
latest news you need to know this week.
39 states across the US are experiencing a significant
uptick in COVID-19 cases
Back in March, when the coronavirus
pandemic first took hold, surging caseloads were confined to the particularly
densely-populated Northeast. Back in late April and May, many of these
seemingly unaffected states began to reopen their economies. Now, with cases
rising in all but 11 states, many experts argue that these states’ officials
were too quick to open stores, businesses, and restaurants back up.
Many more densely-populated
cities—including Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and Phoenix—are
experiencing such high caseloads that their hospitals are running out of beds,
similar in many ways to New York City at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
As cases continue to spike
in the south and southwest, areas of the midwest are also starting to see a
jump in positive case counts. This includes parts of Ohio and Wisconsin as well
as cities like Oklahoma City and Minneapolis.
Texas, California, and Florida are especially hard-hit
A sharp-rise in new
COVID-19 cases in June has led to what experts knew was inevitable: A
subsequent spike in deaths from the novel virus, BuzzFeedNews reports.
New cases of the novel
coronavirus started to rise at the beginning of last month. The death toll
didn’t rise immediately, but researchers have warned that any potential
increases in deaths related to the virus would lag a few weeks behind an
increase in cases. It takes time for the disease to inflitrate communities, and
patients tend to battle the disease for weeks. At first, cases were mostly
affecting young people in these regions, who tend to fare better with the
disease, before it spread to older and riskier populations.
As many as one in three young people could be at risk
for serious cases of COVID-19
Researchers and doctors
studying the coronavirus are still trying to pinpoint what makes some people so
sick while others experience a far less serious bout with the virus. In a
new study published today in the Journal of Adolescent Health,
researchers looked at a sample of 8,400 men and women between the ages of 18
and 25 using data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
From this group, which represented a cross-section of young adults in the
United States, the authors found that 33 percent of males and 30 percent of
women were considered at risk of developing severe COVID-19.
The researchers included
risk factors that the CDC had identified as added risks for a more serious
case. They include heart conditions, diabetes, asthma, immune conditions (such
as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis), as well as liver conditions, obesity, and
smoking (including e-cigarette use) within the previous 30 days. Cigarettes,
e-cigarettes, and cigars have all been negatively associated with respiratory
and immune function, according to the CDC.
Throughout the pandemic,
the risk to young people has, at times, been understated. Although the majority
of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in older people, young people are in no way
immune to experiencing severe cases of COVID-19.
The WHO reported 230,370 cases of COVID-19 on Sunday,
the largest number of new worldwide cases yet
The United States is not
the only country seeing a spike in cases. On Sunday, the World Health
Organization reported its highest number of daily cases yet at 230,370, according to Reuters. Globally,
cases are approaching 13 million. As of July 10th, the average number of deaths
from COVID-19 are stable, but still significant, hovering at 5,000 per day.
California, in the midst of a coronavirus spike,
announces a significant rollback to its reopening orders
The state of California has
been averaging at least 8,000 cases per day since late June, which is more than twice what it
experienced just one month ago. As such, its governor, Gavin Newsom, announced
his plan to retreat away from some of the state’s reopening places. In
particular, Newsom is now requiring fitness centers, worship
areas, hair salons, barbershops, and malls to close.
Today, both Los Angeles and
San Diego public school systems announced their plans to keep schools closed
through the fall, providing online learning instruction only. More than a third
of California coronavirus cases are in these two areas, according to The New York Times.
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