Washington and Michigan States have imposed more restrictions after record new cases

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The number of coronavirus cases surpassed 11 million nationwide as Michigan and Washington are the latest US states to announced strict curbs on movement. The most recent million cases have all come in the past week alone, as health officials advised Americans to forego or revise their Thanksgiving holiday plans to help stop the rapid spread of the disease. Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered high schools and colleges to stop in-person teaching, suspended organized sports, and banned restaurants from offering any indoor dining for the next 3 weeks. The Governor of Washington, Jay Inslee also announced that his state would enforce tighter restrictions on businesses and social gatherings for the next month.

So, Gyms and cinemas will be closed, while restaurants and bars will be limited to outdoor dining and to-go services. Retail stores in the northwest state will be ordered to limit indoor capacity and multiple households will be banned from meeting each other indoors unless they have quarantined for 14 days or tested negative for Covid and quarantined for a week. Point to be noted that President-elect Joe Biden’s team has claimed Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat and offer traditional transition assistance could potentially hamper efforts to combat the novel virus. Chief of Staff Ron Klain said, “Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we’re going to have on January 20th”.

It is noteworthy that Republican Governors in Ohio, West Virginia, Iowa, North Dakota, and Utah have all now issued mandates urging citizens to wear masks. Residents in Wisconsin and Nevada have been asked to stay at home for the next 2 weeks to prevent a return to stricter curbs. The moves follow milestones passed by Texas and California during last week, as each state marked more than one million confirmed Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the epidemic. Sporting events were canceled and at least one city added mobile morgues in anticipation of hospital-overwhelming virus deaths in Texas. Moreover, the officials in California urged those planning any holiday gatherings to take strict precautions, including keeping visits small, outdoors, and under 2 hours long.