GEIS-新闻详情

Covid-19 numbers show promise, but health experts warn each state is a different battleground

2020-04-13 00:00:00.0 美国有线电视-特朗普新闻原网页

(CNN)The White House wants the country to "reopen" soon and New York's governor says a regional reopening is in the offing, but experts warn that in the United States' coronavirus fight, different states will see different peaks.

More than 22,800 people have died from Covid-19 since the virus arrived on American shores, according to Johns Hopkins University's numbers, but the daily tally of deaths dropped Saturday and Sunday, which could be a sign for optimism.

The number of infections -- which stood at more than 560,000 on Monday afternoon -- were also down Saturday and Sunday.

This comes as US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams says cases in some of the country's hotspots -- New York, New Jersey, Detroit and New Orleans -- appear to be "leveling off" or even declining. The situations in California and Washington, meanwhile, remain stable.

"In the midst of tragedy, there IS hope," Adams tweeted Monday. "Social distancing and mitigation IS working. There is a light at the end of this dark tunnel, so keep at it."

Still, many states are in the throes of an intense effort to stem the illness' spread. New York crossed the 10,000-death threshold Monday, as its cases topped 190,000, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. New Jersey and Michigan also have frightening death tolls, with more than 2,300 and 1,400 respectively.

The upside to New York's numbers is that the three-day average for hospitalization, new hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and intubations are all down, Cuomo said Monday morning.

The Northeast joins forces

Cuomo announced Monday the beginning of a "geographically coordinated" reopening plan in conjunction with leaders in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island. Each state will name health and economic officials to join the governors' chiefs of staffs to a working group, which will begin discussions Tuesday.

The group will come up with "parameters to go forward," Cuomo said, and while they may not agree on every aspect of the strategy, finding areas where they can coordinate will be important, especially given the states' close economic, health and transportation ties.

Calling the commuter thoroughfare from his state of Connecticut to New York the "Covid corridor," Gov. Ned Lamont said it was vital that "you don't pull the trigger too early," but applauded the partnership.

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"The reality is this virus doesn't care about state borders, and our response shouldn't either," Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said.

"By working, sharing our information and intelligence, I think will help each of us make better decisions," Delaware Gov. John Carney added, while Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said, "We can do anything better when we work together in this region."

Trump is scheduled Tuesday to announce the formation of the "Opening our Country Council," which is expected to focus on ways to stimulate the economy. Another panel, the White House's coronavirus task force, has been focusing on providing advice to the states on what to do once reopening is advised.

The task force is weighing potential benchmarks that would precede reopening the states, but have yet to settle on specific targets, people familiar with the discussions said.

Doctors in wait-and-see mode

All 50 states are under a federal disaster declaration for the first time in US history. There are more than 29,000 members of the National Guard deployed across the country to deal with the pandemic, according to the National Guard Bureau. Guardsmen have been called to serve a variety of roles, from staffing emergency operations centers to restocking grocery shelves.

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Key to how optimistic Americans should be will depend on what comes next. The country's testing trajectory will be hugely important, experts say.

While President Donald Trump says he wants to reopen the country next month -- even telling state governments to "be ready" as he plans to announce a special council to reopen the country -- health officials say they're still in wait-and-see mode even if the numbers look promising.

"It's important to look at the country as many different separate situations," said Dr. Robert Redfield, director of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on NBC's "Today" show.

"This pandemic has affected different parts of the country differently," Redfield said. "We're looking at the data very carefully, county by county by county, and we will be assessing that."

Public health capabilities need to be improved to perform early case detection, isolation and contact tracing, he said, and officials need to "start working to rebuild confidence in the community, so the community has confidence to reopen."

Testing and social distancing

The US is "nearing the peak right now," Redfield told the morning show.

"You'll know when you're at the peak when the next day is less than the day before," he said. "We are stabilizing across the country in terms of the state of this outbreak."

As for getting the country back to normal, Redfield said it has to be done correctly and "it's going to be a step-by-step, gradual process."

The call for caution is being echoed on the world stage as World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked people to remember the virus accelerates faster than it decelerates, so "control measures can only be lifted if the right public health measures are in place."

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