OCTOBER 17, 2020
A medical staff member performs a Covid-19 test outside the Family Healthcare building in downtown Fargo, North Dakota, on October 15, 2020. / Credit: Bloomberg/Getty
The United States has now seen its highest number of new COVID-19 cases since July, with more than 69,000 new cases reported nationwide on Friday.
In Wisconsin, one in every four coronavirus tests are coming back positive. Residents are being asked to avoid gatherings – even political ones, Michael George reports for “CBS This Morning: Saturday.”
Dr. Bob Freedland, along with other Wisconsin doctors, stepped up Friday to urge the cancellation of President’s Trump’s rally Saturday night in the state.
“President Trump’s rallies endanger public health and they have become platforms for him to spread medically inaccurate information,” he said.
Wisconsin is one of at least seven states that in the past two days have set records for infections – and there’s no mystery about what’s causing case numbers to rise.
“Retirement parties, birthday parties, baby showers, weddings, all of those things,” said Andrea Palm, Secretary-designee of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
In Kansas City, eight area hospitals have had to turn away patients this week.
New Mexico, meanwhile, saw a second straight day of record-breaking cases and hospitalizations on Friday.
“We’re not succeeding at combating the virus,” said New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham. “This is the most serious emergency that New Mexico has ever faced.”
In California, the Attractions and Parks Association is petitioning to open Disneyland. But the governor is not swayed.
“We don’t anticipate in the immediate term any of these larger theme parks opening until we see more stability,” said Governor Gavin Newsom.
In Salem, Massachusetts, a push for Halloween-as-usual has gotten pushback.
“This is not the year to come to Salem,” said the city’s mayor, Kim Driscoll.
Nearly eight months into the pandemic, more than 8 million COVID-19 cases have been reported across the country. Facing a worsening crisis, there’s still no unified response on what to do.
One of the leading voices on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, favors public health measures over a national lockdown. He told “60 Minutes” in a report airing Sunday that things would have to get “really, really bad” for him to advocate for a national lockdown.
“First of all, the country is fatigued with restrictions. So we want to use public health measures, not to get in the way of opening the economy, but to being a safe gateway to opening the economy,” he said.
He told “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell earlier this week that he thinks we’ll know by November or December if there’s a safe and effective vaccine candidate. Asked when a vaccine would be available for most Americans, he estimated it would “likely be within the first quarter of 2021, by let’s say April of 2021” — if all the vaccines that are currently in clinical trials work out.
Courtesy/Source: CBS News
