The governors of states that were early coronavirus hot spots are making aggressive moves to prevent a second wave of the virus.
Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey added Rhode Island to the list of states under a travel advisory Tuesday that mandates visitors from high-infection states to self-isolate for two weeks upon arriving to any of the three states. Other states under the advisory include Florida, California, Texas, North Carolina, and Washington.
The move is just one of several by the three states to tighten virus-related restrictions in recent days.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ramped up his efforts to crack down on large gatherings of people across the state, especially in New York City. He said Monday that the surges in new cases across the country, namely in Texas and Florida, could easily carry into the tri-state area, which has gotten the coronavirus relatively under control.
“It’s Florida, it’s Texas, it’s the Midwest, it’s California, ‘oh, it’s back to New Jersey’ is on the rise, ‘oh, it’s back to Massachusetts’ is on the rise,” Cuomo said Monday. “It will continue, this ricocheting across the country, because that’s what viruses do.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy scaled back indoor group size limits to 25 people Monday, with exceptions for events such as weddings and funerals. The limit for indoor gatherings had increased to a maximum of 100 people in June, up from the previous maximum of 50 people.
States under the travel advisory, such as Florida, Texas, and Mississippi, have some of the highest test positive rates in the country — 18.4%, 13.8%, and 23.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, test positive rates in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are all under 2%, according to data collected and published by COVID Exit Strategy.
New York and New Jersey were once the epicenters of the coronavirus. Deaths in New York have exceeded 25,000, with about 19,000 deaths in just New York City. In New Jersey, about 14,000 people have died, and about 4,400 people in Connecticut have died.
As of Tuesday afternoon, over 4.7 million COVID-19 infections have been confirmed nationwide, and more than 156,000 people have died.
Senate Republicans said Tuesday that the negotiations for a new round of federal coronavirus aid have stalled because Democrats won’t compromise on the cost or scope of a package and are raising the price tag instead.
“It’s been really frustrating,” Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, told the Washington Examiner after White House negotiators briefed the Republican conference on the stalemate. “It’s not budging at all. They came up.”
The Trump administration and Democratic leaders have not gotten anywhere after days of closed-door discussions on a new spending bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that White House officials and Democratic leaders would continue negotiating on a larger package.
New York City’s public health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, resigned Tuesday, citing her disappointment with how the city government handled the coronavirus pandemic.
“I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been,” she said in her resignation letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Barbot and others in the city’s public health department have taken issue with de Blasio’s May decision to delegate virus tracking and tracing efforts, which have long been handled by the health department, to the agency that manages public hospitals.
“Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work,” Barbot said Tuesday. “The city would be well served by having them at the strategic center of the response not in the background.”
Many Catholic schools will open for in-person classes this fall, even as a wide sweep of public schools will begin the semester online. California Gov. Gavin Newsom in July announced the closure of all schools public and private, a move that drew backlash and lawsuits from many parents. More recently, Montgomery County, Maryland, Health Officer Travis Gayles announced that all private schools would be forced online for the beginning of the year. Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, overruled the order on Monday. But in most states, many Catholic and private schools are planning to reopen without incident.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy could be a treatment for people with COVID-19, according to two physicians at NYU Winthrop Hospital. Scott Gorenstein and David Lee conducted a study of 20 patients with COVID-19 whom they put in a hyperbaric chamber. Ninety percent of those patients survived. Of 60 patients who did not receive the treatment, 78% survived. Dr. Lee said the next step would be conducting a randomized, controlled trial of the treatment.
The governors of Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, Louisiana, Michigan, and Virginia (three Republicans and three Democrats), have teamed up to work with private manufacturers of rapid coronavirus tests, such as Becton Dickinson and Quidel, in an effort to scale up production, circumventing the federal government.
“With severe shortages and delays in testing and the federal administration attempting to cut funding for testing, the states are banding together to acquire millions of faster tests to help save lives and slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Hogan.
The most commonly used diagnostic tests produce results in about seven days and as many as 10 to 15 days in some states, rendering tests useless as a means to prevent community transmission. Rapid antigen tests can detect the coronavirus within 20 minutes, mitigating the risk of spreading the virus in the time between getting tested and getting results.
