The U.S. can’t put Covid-19 behind it.
New case counts are declining in some recent hot spots. But they’re spiking in places like Iowa and South Dakota, signaling what may be a new phase in the country’s virus fight as progress in one state is repeatedly offset by infections in others, with little improvement overall.
Politics plays a role, as do events like college reopenings and the Sturgis motorcycle rally. But it’s also a sign of fatigue, the frustration and exhaustion Americans feel after months of masks and hand sanitizer, social isolation, shuttered businesses and closed beaches. People are putting their guard down, experts agree, leaving room for the virus to continue spreading as the country seeks to reopen the economy.
“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,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. “This is a virus that’s established itself into the population.”
Overall, U.S. cases this week surpassed 6 million. In the Midwest, positivity rates have reached alarming levels.
In Iowa, for instance, 10.3% of cases came back positive on Monday, slightly below the 14-day average of 11.1%, according to state data. Overall, the state, which currently has no state-wide mask mandate, has recorded 65,478 cases, with new cases rising 50% in the last two weeks.
Iowa State University, in Ames, reported Monday that 28.8% of the students, faculty and staff tested in the most recent week had the virus, although school officials have focused their testing on people showing symptoms or those who have been exposed to someone with the virus. The University of Iowa has reported 922 cases within its campus population.
In Ohio, Covid-19 first started as an urban scourge in the cities of Cleveland and Columbus. But the spread is now making waves in rural regions spurred by social gatherings and the return to school, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Tuesday during a news conference in Cedarville.
“The virus is not going away,” DeWine, a Republican, said. “We think a significant part of this is caused by our colleges going back as well as our grade schools going back.”
College Reopenings
Colleges experiencing outbreaks didn’t necessarily reopen too soon, according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The problem, he said in an interview Tuesday, was that the schools did not have “the capability of dealing with students who got infected.”