COVID Records Are Being Broken Across the US

Just 10 days after the US registered its 9 millionth COVID case, it is expected to hit 10 million on Monday. That's just one of the grim notes from a Washington Post article that delves into the coronavirus surge currently gripping the country. Records are being set across the country, with more than half of states reporting, for the first time since early May, new highs for their seven-day averages of new COVID-19 infections. Nationwide, Sunday was the latest in a series of days logging more than 100,000 cases (more than 107,000) and the seven-day average being above 100,000 for the first time; a week ago, the daily average was just over 80,000.

"We could also hit historic highs in daily hospitalizations this week," the US surgeon general warned. On CBS Sunday, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that "we’ve been sort of arguing politically over what I think is a false dichotomy, a straw man, that it’s really a choice between lockdowns and no lockdowns. And that’s not the case." Indeed, other experts have said the same, noting that measures like mask mandates will work better. In Utah on Sunday, the governor declared a state of emergency in response to surging cases and issued a mandate requiring masks and distancing in public settings, rather than shutting businesses down, KSL reports. (More coronavirus stories.)