Swing States See Record Coronavirus Numbers As Election Day Nears

ACROSS AMERICA — Coronavirus outbreaks in swing states could be a major factor in determining who wins the 2020 presidential election.

Record case and death numbers were reported in recent days in Michigan and North Carolina, both battleground states, according to the New York Times. In other swing states such as Wisconsin, hospitals are reaching capacity.

“Things are really running rampant, so there is a lot of discontent,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

New coronavirus case and death numbers were down just slightly a day after the United States set a single-day record for new case reports. Numbers from Saturday show a national total of 848 new deaths and 84,285, according to the New York Times database.

At least 971 new coronavirus deaths and 98,859 new cases were reported on Friday, according to the New York Times database. The case number a daily record for any country.

At least two dozen states have recorded their worst week ever for confirmed coronavirus cases as the national record was set.

Sixteen states reported single-day records for new cases on Friday, according to a New York Times database: Iowa, Kentucky, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oregon, Kansas, Ohio, Colorado and Maine. And three states hit record deaths: Tennessee, Montana and New Mexico.

In the Midwest, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan are experiencing alarming rises in cases. In Illinois, new cases have increased nearly 70 percent in two weeks. Ohio reported 3,845 new cases on Friday, the second single-day record in a row. And Michigan has been averaging more than 3,000 cases per day for the past week — an increase of 88 percent from the average two weeks ago.

As we headed into the weekend, the total number of confirmed infections in the United States surpassed 9 million, just 15 days after reaching the 8 million mark.

At least 230,000 deaths have been linked to the coronavirus.

The total number of cases on Friday broke the previous record set a day earlier when the United States reported nearly 91,000 new cases.

Wall Street is also suffering its worst week since March as rising cases, new shutdowns, lack of a stimulus package and a sell-off in large technology shares caused stocks to fall for the fourth time in five days Friday.

Meanwhile, a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who contract COVID-19 can quickly spread the virus through their households.

Researchers found that “substantial transmission” can still occur at home, regardless of whether the first patient was an adult or a child. The transmission rate was high across all racial and ethnic groups, researchers found.

The findings highlight the need for strict measures, even at home, to help control the spread of the disease.

On Friday, drugmaker Regeneron said it would stop enrolling very sick people in a trial of its antibody treatment in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, the Times also reported, another sign that treatments may not work well in patients with advanced forms of the disease.

In the past week, a list of prominent public health experts — including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease specialist, and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of food and drugs under President Donald Trump — have said it's time to seriously consider a national mandate to curb the spread of the virus.

Despite the support, a mandate would likely face legal challenges if imposed.

“Instead of making it about the president’s coercive authority under law, it should be about whether the president can support a norm that supports public health, which is in people’s self-interest,” Harold Koh, a law professor at Yale University and an expert in national security and human rights, told the Times.

In addition, state officials are saying they won't have enough money to comply with "the enormous and complicated undertaking" of being ready to receive and distribute the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 15, according to The Washington Post.

Despite uncertainty on the timing of a vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked states to be prepared to “preposition” doses in key locations throughout the country.

State officials said they've tried to raise the issue of lack of funding with federal officials but have received little response.

The Latest Numbers

At least 848 new coronavirus deaths and 84,285 new cases were reported in the United States on Saturday, according to a New York Times database. Over the past week, there have been an average of 79,833 cases per day, an increase of 42 percent from the average two weeks earlier.

As of Sunday, 36 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 9.1 million people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Saturday evening, and more than 230,800 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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