As the coronavirus health crisis continues to accelerate, the global number of cases has crossed ten million with the US and Brazil being the worst-hit out of all the countries. The pandemic, which originally began six months ago, is likely to last for a very long time and is not even near to being over, according to a statement by the World Health Organization on Monday. Therefore, coronavirus spikes are expected all over the world in the upcoming months.
The largest increase is expected in the US as different in the countries are reporting groundbreaking increases since the past week. Even though the US government states that the situation is under control, the medical community believes otherwise and continues to criticize the federal government’s slow and ineffective response to the pandemic.
Soon after the lockdown restrictions were lifted, the country had major increases in the number of new coronavirus infection cases within a matter of a few days. The states with the highest number of daily recorded cases include Texas, Florida, and Arizona.
According to the health experts, the coronavirus spikes are partly the consequence of reopening states before the right time. The progress of the infection had largely remained the same even after the first lockdown. Had there not been a rise in unemployment across the US, maybe the lockdown should have lasted much longer, thereby preventing millions of more cases.
Also read: Coronavirus Pandemic Far from Being Over – WHO Warns as Global Death Toll Reaches 500,000
At the moment, the virus has been seen to spread like wildfire, with people getting infected after going out once after staying in lockdown for three months straight. For instance, a recent coronavirus spike has been seen in the US state of Michigan where eighty-eight cases of coronavirus are reportedly linked to a single bar in East Lansing.
Michigan had lifted lockdown restrictions in all cities across the state on the eighth of June, following all other US states. The reopening also eased restrictions on restaurants and bars, allowing people to dine-in, takeaway, and visit many such places including a popular bar known as Harper’s Restaurant & Brew Pub.
One of the people who visited Harper’s Restaurant & Brew Pub, Alexa Ligon, who is currently in quarantine, went to celebrate a friend’s birthday along with a group of friends after returning from college due to the first lockdown. According to Ligon, she and her friends did not wear a mask simply because the bar did not have a requirement.
In addition, she also added that the bar, during the time she and her friends visited, was packed with flocks of people, none of whom were wearing a mask of practicing social distancing. Even though Ligon and her friends did not have symptoms of coronavirus infection, the Ingham County Health Department, traced eighty-eight new coronavirus cases diagnosed last week to the same bar.
The Ingham County Health Officer, Linda Vail, states that the number of cases increased from fifty-one to eighty-eight in a matter of three days. The department expects the number of cases to rise even further in the upcoming days. Ligon and her friends visited the bar on June 15th, which was closed later on the 20th after the coronavirus cases were diagnosed at the end of the week.
The incident alone shows that not only are people not following preventive measures as seriously as before but also how many businesses are not following the guidelines to reduce transmission as well. Coronavirus spikes are likely to increase if bars, restaurants, and other businesses continue to operate without imposing restrictions.