Increases in COVID-19 cases in some Western states suggest that the United States isn’t completely out of the woods just yet.
Although COVID-19 cases are declining nationally, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and New Mexico are experiencing increases in cases and hospitalizations.
The seven-day average of new cases has increased 14% over the last two weeks in Washington. It has increased 17% in Oregon, 19% in Arizona, and 9% in New Mexico, according to the New York Times.
The increase is likely driven, at least in part, by the more infectious coronavirus strain from the United Kingdom, known as B.1.1.7. In Washington, B.1.1.7 accounted for about 5% of sequenced cases in late February. By mid-April, it accounted for 38%.
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COVID-19 hospitalizations have also increased over the last two weeks in those states, rising 18% in Washington, 34% in Oregon, 10% in Arizona, and 4% in New Mexico.
The recent wave has subsided in much of the rest of the nation. The seven-day average of new cases in the U.S. fell below 50,000 on Saturday, the lowest since October and down from a recent peak of about 71,000 on April 14. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky presented modeling Wednesday finding that the vaccination campaign could mean a sharp decline in cases by July. “We are not out of the woods yet, but we could be very close,” she said.
Officials in Washington and Oregon have been responding to the wave by slowing down reopening plans and increasing restrictions.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday suspended his state’s COVID-19 reopening plan, meaning that all 39 counties in the state will remain in their current phase of reopening. The suspension will last for at least two weeks.
“We are in an evolving situation unlike any other during this pandemic,” Inslee said in a statement.
In Oregon, social distancing and masking requirements for businesses were extended indefinitely by the state’s Department of Occupational Safety and Health. On Friday, Gov. Kate Brown moved 15 counties from high-risk to extreme-risk, increasing their restrictions. On Tuesday, Brown moved them back to high-risk, saying that the hospitalization metric for those counties had been met.
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Thus far, no restrictions have been put in place in Arizona or New Mexico.
