U.S. Reports More Than 500,000 Cases In A Week, A Record, As Cities And States Enact New Restrictions

By Staff Reporter
Posted on 10/27/20 | News Source: NY Times

The United States has recorded more than 500,000 new cases over the past week for the first time as states and cities resort to imposing new restrictions that range from nightly business curfews to barring indoor dining, an effort to contain the virus that is again raging across the country, especially the American heartland.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Tuesday that he was ordering a halt to indoor restaurant dining and bar service in Chicago, effective at 12:01 a.m. Friday, Oct. 30.

The city joins New York and Wisconsin, states that earlier this month issued restrictions or outright bans on indoor dining in restaurants and bars to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The restrictions have been loudly opposed by a restaurant industry that has been decimated by the pandemic.

Chicago is now averaging more than twice as many coronavirus-related hospital admissions per day as it was a month ago, Mr. Pritzker’s office said, and the share of tests that are coming back positive has almost doubled since the beginning of October.

The U.S. has reported a record daily average of about 71,000 new cases over the past week, an increase of about 40 percent from the average two weeks earlier. Eighteen states, including Illinois, have recorded their highest seven-day average of new cases, and three states (Tennessee, Wisconsin and Oklahoma) have set a record seven-day average for deaths. On Tuesday, Oklahoma and Wyoming broke single-day death records and Kentucky reported a new daily cases record. Read more at NY Times