These States That Contained COVID Are at Risk of Backsliding, Expert Warns
These States That Contained COVID Are at Risk of Backsliding, Expert Warns, Efforts to contain the coronavirus in the United States continue to have varying degrees of success on a timeline that changes depending on the region of the country. In July, the epicenters of the virus shifted from New York and surrounding states to places in the south and west like Florida, Arizona, Texas, and California. But as officials in some of those states—Arizona, for example—took action to retighten restrictions that had eased during reopening, case numbers have begun to flatten. And now, according to Ashish Jha, MD, K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI), concern has shifted back to states at risk in the northeast—where previous success has lead to overly lax behavior in recent weeks.
In a call with press on Aug. 3, Jha kicked things off by noting his fear that states in northeast—particularly Massachusetts and Rhode Island—are "headed in the wrong direction." States in the region, Jha says, have had lower levels of the disease in recent weeks, which is clearly a good thing, but in no way indicates that they should consider themselves free of the threat of another outbreak. "I'm worried people in the northeast think we're done with the pandemic," he said before adding that those states should not forget the lessons learned from the post-reopening outbreaks that occurred in the south.
In a response to a question from the Los Angeles Times, Jha praised the early and ongoing efforts of states located in the northeast, as well as ones in the midwest such as Michigan, but restated his concern about those efforts dropping off to quickly and severely. "What they did in April and May is what the rest of the country needed to have done, which is really stay shut down until the number of cases really came way, way down." he said on the call. However, in follow-up question from The Wall Street Journal, Jha said that based on state data, "It's very clear to me that these states are heading in the wrong direction."
As an example of the state data Jha is referring to, according to the Massachusetts health department, the state reported 353 new COVID cases on Aug. 2, an increase from the two days prior. Positive test rates had also increased, the data showed. Rhode Island also reported an increase of new cases on Sunday, according to the most recent state data. And for more on the status of COVID where you live, check out Here's How Much COVID Cases Are Rising in Every State.
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