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Michigan, Washington state impose severe COVID-19 restrictions as U.S. infections soar

Published 11/15/2020, 10:12 AM
Updated 11/15/2020, 10:46 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ebola Response Coordinator Klain listens as U.S. President Obama speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ebola Response Coordinator Klain listens as U.S. President Obama speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington

By David Shepardson and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Michigan and Washington state on Sunday imposed sweeping new restrictions on gatherings, including halting indoor restaurant service, to slow the spread of the coronavirus as total U.S. infections crossed the 11 million mark, just over a week after hitting 10 million.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered a ban on in-person high school and college classes as well as indoor dining service for three weeks starting on Wednesday as increasingly cold weather drives people indoors where the virus can spread more easily.

She banned public events at concert halls, casinos, movie theaters, skating rinks and other venues, while in-home gatherings will be limited to 10 people from no more than two households.

Whitmer, a Democrat, warned that without aggressive action, Michigan could soon suffer 1,000 COVID-19 deaths per week.

"We are in the worst moment of this pandemic to date," she told a news conference. "The situation has never been more dire. We are at the precipice and we need to take some action."

White House coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas (NYSE:ATCO) reacted to the Michigan orders by urging state residents on Twitter https://twitter.com/SWAtlasHoover/status/1328171502211043328 to "rise up" against them. After this drew criticism from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Atlas said he "NEVER was talking at all about violence."

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, announced a one-month ban on indoor services at restaurants and gyms, and a reduction of in-store retail capacity to 25%.

Indoor gatherings would be prohibited outside of one's household and outdoor gatherings would be limited to five people in Washington state under Inslee's order.

The new restrictions come as daily new infections in recent days have more than doubled from single-day highs reported during the previous U.S. peak in mid-July. The number of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals also has reached an all-time high.

'DANGEROUS PERIOD'

Earlier on Sunday, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's top advisers called for urgent action to address COVID-19, warning that Republican President Donald Trump's refusal to begin a transition of power could further jeopardize the battle against the rampaging virus. Biden's advisers also said it would inhibit vaccine distribution planning and could jeopardize additional government financial aid before Biden, a Democrat, takes office in January.

"We are in a very dangerous period," Dr Michael Osterholm, a member of Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board and director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told NBC News' "Meet the Press."

Unless action is taken now, "we're going to see these numbers grow substantially", Osterholm warned. "Our future's in our hands."

Basic public health measures such as face covering to curb the spread have become politicized under Trump, who has eschewed mask mandates even after contracting COVID-19 last month, while Biden has backed their widespread use.

Still, some Republican governors in recent days have been forced to act, with North Dakota joining 35 other states over the weekend in mandating masks and Iowa this week requiring them in certain circumstances.

Forty U.S. states have reported record increases in COVID-19 cases in November, while 20 saw a record rise in deaths and 26 reported record hospitalizations, according to a Reuters tally.

The latest 7-day average, shows the United States is reporting more than 144,000 daily cases and 1,120 daily deaths, the highest for any country in the world.

Ron Klain, Biden's incoming White House chief of staff, on Sunday urged Congress to immediately pass COVID-19 relief legislation with new restrictions certain to take a toll.

"This could be a first example of bipartisan action post-election," Klain told NBC. He said Biden has spoken to congressional Democratic leaders, but not to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has refused to publicly acknowledge Biden as president-elect.

'PASSING A BATON'

Klain said there had been no formal contact between Biden's advisory panel and the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which requires transition authorization from the General Services Administration.

"It's really important in the smooth handing over of the information," top U.S. infectious disease expert and White House task force member Dr Anthony Fauci told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "It's almost like passing a baton in a race, you don't want to stop and give it to somebody, you just want to essentially keep going."

Biden's team this week planned to meet with Pfizer Inc (N:PFE), which last week released positive initial data on its experimental novel coronavirus vaccine, and other drugmakers, Klain said.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy, head of Biden's COVID team, told Fox News the coronavirus surge was "deeply alarming" but that a national lockdown was "a measure of last resort."

© Reuters. Schools are routinely sanitized as students return to school in Michigan

"The better way to think about these safety restrictions is more a dial that we turn up and down depending on severity" in a given area, he said.

Latest comments

A complete market disconect. A fabrication by big financial managers who keep baiting the buy-in.
fantastic news. for markets.
Hey biden. Talk to the general services commision if you eant to begin transition talks with covid task force. Oh wait, they havent contacted you because you are not president elect until results are certified.
And 355 million people in the usa. 68k hospitilized. Is it sad yes. Is it way overdone. So mich. this was the Democrats plan to finally get rid of President Trump. I could guarantee you they work with China to release this. But we have some thing like a 2% infection rate country rwidre and .00007yee death rate. Biggest fraud of the century.
It has a 3% to 5€ death rate
And horrendous side effects for many survivors. Work with China to release this? Ridiculous!
Gretchen just sounds like a Karen lol. Gretchen should be the new Karen, too many nice Karens now hate their name
Low deathrate
Smart to lockdown over .00000000001 deathrate. Scared? STAY HOME! Let the healthy people go to work
Today’s Dallas Headline: “North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) distributed more than 600,000 pounds of food for about 25,000 people in Dallas on Saturday as Covid19 swept through the area unabated.” Republican Governor Abbott has totally failed his people!
As a Texan I must say that Abbott has indeed failed the people of Texas. Ken Paxton the Attorney General shares a large amount of the blame also. People need to work, so we should be about keeping all the essential folks safe while doing that. All the non-essential things, i.e., nail salons, tattoo parlors, gyms, bars and the like need to be closed and kept closed until a substantial part of the populace is vaccinated. The losses those closed businesses suffer should be reimbursed 100% by the government, until such point where they are able to reopen.
The usurpers and torturers of the people will soon be arrested for blatantly robbing citizens of their rights to liberty in the name of pseudo medicalTerror
Man that commie loves her lockdowns. Oppress the people!
"infections soar"! How many believe the media?
Anyone who hasn’t been conditioned to distrust them by a failed businessman posing as a president?
I very seldom believe the media, that's why I do my own research through medical sources like Johns Hopkins and our state department of health services. Worldometer is also a good non-biased source of information regarding this pandemic. And yes, by using the data provided by these reliable sources the infections are soaring. The truth is out there, but you sometimes have to invest a little effort to find it.
Biden's team will be starting from scratch - after the trump/pence task force circle jerk! But hey those republican states are all winning right, winning!
Nanny States.... sad.
yet death rates ate all time lows, down over 85% since democrat cities like NY stopped shoving elderly people into crowded nursing homes.
Psst....let the Red State governors stay open.....four years from now their populations will all be dead and Joe can win ALL the Electoral votes, instead of just MOST of them. RIP, Red States! LOL!
Great idea. Let's split up the US and you "theys", drag story hour freaks, late term abortionists,mask wearing science denying sheep, and free everything can live there and we'll live here. Thanks.. Bye
Tom....you should have been a late term ****
critics okay, easy but... what is your proposed solution?
Oh, so that is what it is all about!!! Passing financial aid, lol.  So these dudes are telling us that throwing money at their pockets will fix the situation. Lol
Biden need to tell all Democratic governors to lockdown these D States.
Let it Rip and be done with it, masks are not working and neither are these stay at home orders from these hippocratic Governors.
hard for a strategy to work when 48% of your population won't make any effort to act responsibly but hey you go *******3 % of your population by doing nothing - cause that's the GOP way!
You obviously do not get out much. Sweden used the let it burn to obtain herd immunity, and now they are getting smashed. Their leaders have now come out and admitted their approach was very short sighted, and they are in trouble now because of that. Lockdowns and over interventions do indeed cause economic damage, but the sight of hospitals turning down patients, hospital hallways filled with patients, people dying from things that would normally be survivable like heart attacks and strokes due to the inability to find a hospital that will accept you, and refrigerated transport trailers being brought in to house the bodies as they are doing in El Paso, Texas, and doctors and nurses experiencing burn out and fatigue due to a lack of rest, well, that is also capable of causing economic damage.
u turn on the lockdown. Not the first u turn and haven't even started yet, so many more to come for Joe the Healer.
Wait your turn Klain...
you seem to know it all, good for you... but maybe try varying your sources, makes for a better researcher.
 Trumps own words live on tape for history - to Bob Woodward - you know one of the guys who got Nixon - Trump just had to be the star - loved lying to americans about the risks for 11 months - gone by april, june, august, turning the corner again and again and again - he's turned so many corners his administration has done circles around their complete failure!
what did your own research help you find??!!
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