Restrictions Ramp Up As U.S. Coronavirus Cases Top 11 Million

ACROSS AMERICA — New coronavirus restrictions have been put in place in some states as the number of cases reported throughout the United States have gone above 11 million.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed an executive order Sunday limiting capacity at retail grocery stores, banning indoor service at bars and restaurants and prohibiting most gatherings with people outside the household until at least Dec. 14.

In Michigan, indoor social gatherings and other group activities have been paused for three weeks as officials work to curb rapidly rising coronavirus infection rates.

"This situation has never been more dire," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said during a news conference announcing the restrictions Sunday. "As the weather gets colder and people spend more time indoors, the virus will spread and more people will get sick and there will be more fatalities."

A "stay-at-home" advisory gets underway Monday morning as part of the "Protest Chicago" initiative in the nation's third largest city. In addition to the stay-home advisory, city officials set a 10-person capacity limit on indoor and outdoor meetings and social gatherings, including weddings, funerals, birthday parties and business dinners.

The new restrictions come as the United States has surpassed 11 million coronavirus cases. As the virus is surging at an unprecedented rate, it took just eight days for the country to go from 10 million to 11 million cases, according to data from Reuters.

Daily new case averages are up 80 percent from just two weeks ago, according to The New York Times. States reported the highest surges over the past week are North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming and Wisconsin, according to the Times data.

Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota has announced several measures, including a mask mandate, a limit on indoor dining of 50 percent capacity or 150 people and a suspension of high school winter sports and extracurricular activities until Dec. 14. In the spring, the state was one of a handful of states that never entered a lockdown.

New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland, Minnesota, Indiana, Utah, Montana and Alaska all set single-day records for new cases over the weekend.

Doctors continue to urge Americans to take the coronavirus seriously as case records continue across the states.

"I'm not saying we need a lockdown, but I am asking everyone to get back to a May 2020 mind-set and routinely wear the mask when indoors around others besides your household," Dr. John McCarley in Chattanooga, Tennessee said in a plea on Facebook.

On Twitter, Dr. Angela Hewlett, an epidemiologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, specifically called on the governor to increase "directed health measures," noting that the number of hospitalizations in the state was "skyrocketing."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, appeared on “CBS This Morning” to repeat his pleas to Americans to take the virus seriously.

“If we do the things that are simple public health measures, that soaring will level and start to come down,” he said. “You add that to the help of a vaccine, we can turn this around. It is not futile.”

The Latest Numbers

At least 1,210 new coronavirus deaths and 159,021 new cases were reported in the United States on Saturday, according to a New York Times database. Over the past week, there has been an average of 145,712 cases per day, an increase of 80 percent from the average two weeks earlier.

As of Sunday, 43 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

More than 11 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Sunday evening, and nearly 246,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or Washington Post.

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