Meanwhile, across the South and West, coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are on the rise. In Texas, more than 2,100 people in the state were hospitalized with covid-19 as of Friday, according to state data tracked by The Washington Post, and intensive care units are reportedly at 88 percent capacity in the Houston area. Arkansas reported 731 new cases, the largest since the pandemic began. And in North Carolina, cases topped 40,000 after its highest single-day increase.
“We continue to see a decrease in social distancing,” Mecklenburg County, N.C., health director Gibbie Harris said Friday, “and before long we will be back to where we were when we put the stay-at-home order in place.”
Here are some significant developments:
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new coronavirus guidelines Friday, which included a recommendation that organizers of large events that involve shouting, chanting or singing “strongly encourage” the use of cloth face coverings. push to reopen the country.
- Florida got rid of its top geographic data scientist in May. Rebekah Jones now publicizes statistics on her own, at FloridaCOVIDAction.com, which gives a higher case total and a lower number of people tested than data published by the state.
- Wall Street is back in buying mode, with the Dow Jones industrial average jumping nearly 700 points at the opening bell following Thursday’s a massive sell-off.
- The United States surpassed 2 million coronavirus cases on Thursday, less than five months after the first case was confirmed. That far exceeds the number of infections reported in any other country. The virus has now killed at least 112,000 people in the United States.