- The United States recorded its second-highest
spike in cases of the coronavirus since
the crisis began on Tuesday.
A Reuters tally put the new infections at over 35,000--
a surge across a dozen states that was
the largest since April.
Florida, in particular, saw a large record increase
of more than 5,000 cases.
The US appeared to have curbed the outbreak in May,
leading many states to lift limits
on social and economic activity.
However, the virus is moving into rural areas
and other places that it hadn't deeply spread into at first.
It also appears to be renewing its surge in states,
like Florida, that opened up early
to ease the economic impact of restrictions to stop the virus.
On Wednesday, White House advisor
Kellyanne Conway acknowledged what
she called hot spot spikes.
KELLYANNE CONWAY: Nobody is talking in some of these states
about going into another economic lockdown
and creating a pandemic within a pandemic.
But we are in a much better situation now
than we were previously in terms of dealing with the pandemic.
- While some of the increased numbers of cases
can be attributed to more testing,
the numbers don't line up.
Over the last seven days, the average number of tests
has risen by more than 7% while the average number of cases
has jumped by 30%.
On Wednesday, the governors of New York, New Jersey,
and Connecticut said that visitors from states where
COVID-19 rates are high must quarantine
for two weeks on arrival.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled the measure.
ANDREW CUOMO: It's only for the simple reason
that we worked very hard to get the viral transmission
rate down.
We don't want to see it go up because a lot of people
come into this region.
And they could literally bring the infection with them.
- The nine states subject to the advisory
include Florida, Texas, and both Carolinas.