It's almost difficult to fathom that we're in a worse position now than we were at the peak of our coronavirus outbreak in April, but we've reached a new peak.
The United States recorded over 36,000 positive tests in late April and that record held up until yesterday when we recorded a staggering 45,000 cases.
The U.S. saw a record number of new coronavirus cases in a single day, with 45,557 diagnoses reported Wednesday, according to a tally by NBC News.
Wednesday’s cases top the previous highest daily count from April 26 — during the first peak of the pandemic in the U.S. — by more than 9,000 cases, according to NBC News’ tracking data. The World Health Organization reported its single-day record on Sunday, with more than 183,000 new cases worldwide.
Health experts said Monday that the resurgence in cases in Southern and Western states can be traced to Memorial Day, when many officials began loosening lockdowns and reopening businesses.
At least some of these numbers can be attributed to testing more people, but infection rates are increasing alongside tests. The ratio is increasing, not decreasing.
We should be testing more people, finding fewer infections, and then tracing the positive tests to stop the spread, but at this point a tracing program may be futile. We may have to hit the reset button with another lockdown and then begin tracing when the current wave subsides.
Other countries have controlled their outbreaks by imposing rigorous lockdowns and then focusing on fresh infections as they slowly reopened, but we didn't do the second part.
Unlike the previous peak of our outbreak which centered on New York City, the current peak is more distributed across the country particularly in the south and west. That will make it more difficult to stop because it's less geographically isolated.