This archive report was first published on 20 April 2020.
As the US continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, some regions are showing signs of improvement, while others are experiencing a surge in new cases and deaths.
On Monday, New York reported 4,726 new cases and 478 new deaths, its fewest new cases in a month and lowest one-day death toll in over two weeks. However, the country has added over 25,000 new cases per day for the past week.
Massachusetts has been particularly hard hit, with 1,705 new cases reported on Sunday, bringing the total to 38,077, and 146 new deaths, which brought the death toll to 1,706. Governor Charlie Baker stated, “We’re right in the middle of the surge now,” on CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday.
Los Angeles County reported 81 deaths on Saturday, its highest one-day death toll, and nearly a thousand new cases had been identified in the previous 48 hours. County officials noted that the number of deaths had doubled in the last week.
Workplace-based clusters have been reported in several states, including North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Kansas, and Tennessee, suggesting that the pandemic is just beginning to affect some communities. Nursing homes and prisons continue to be hot spots, with an outbreak at a correctional facility in Goldsboro, N.C., causing cases to spike in Wayne County.
County officials reported that over half of the inmates at the Neuse Correctional Institution, 458, have tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, Maryland received thousands of tests from South Korea after the governor and his wife closed a deal with labs.
