Although Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington, D.C., was grappling with the riot that tore by way of the Capitol final week, yet another crisis was gradually unfolding in the district: a surge of coronavirus circumstances.
Washington has been averaging 290 new coronavirus circumstances a day above the previous week, its highest figure for any 7-day stretch of the pandemic. The rest of the Mid-Atlantic area, like Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, is also surging: All 3 states set weekly situation data on Sunday.
At a information conference on Monday, Ms. Bowser urged residents to be vigilant towards the virus, noting that the district’s hospitals are becoming strained by coronavirus individuals and that the fee of constructive virus check success was worryingly higher.
“We continue to be concerned — as the rest of the nation stays concerned — about the maximize in circumstances,” the mayor stated.
Commencing on Monday, Ms. Bowser stated, any resident who is 65 or older can make an appointment to get the Covid-19 vaccine. The policy follows people of a amount of states that have lowered the age threshold from 75, exactly where the Centers for Illnesses Manage and Prevention had encouraged it be set for early rounds of vaccinations.
Immediately after a surge final spring, Washington managed to maintain its situation numbers comparatively lower by way of the summer season and into the fall. When October started, the district was averaging fewer than forty new circumstances a day.
But the problem has worsened steadily due to the fact then. Situation numbers rose steeply above a two-month stretch, reaching a peak in early December. Although situation counts ebbed a bit in the days just before Christmas, that progress has been undone in the 1st days of 2021.
It is also quickly to know no matter whether the influx of demonstrators final week and the deadly rampage at the Capitol on Wednesday led to a spike in coronavirus infections, both in Washington or in the dwelling states of people who poured into the city.
1 lawmaker who has due to the fact examined constructive, Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, stated on Monday that she believes she was exposed though taking shelter in a Capitol space with other lawmakers who ignored guidelines to dress in masks.