Is It Time for the U.S. to Consider a 2nd Lockdown as Coronavirus Cases Spike?

As the U.S. economy is trying to restart its economy from a month of lockdown, the resurgence of coronavirus cases in many states could interrupt the flow. In the worst-case scenario, the country could go into another lockdown.

 

On Thursday, July 9, 2020, the U.S. reported a sequential record high of the new coronavirus daily cases at 60,500, increased from 60,000 a day earlier, according to a Reuters tally. The U.S. has over 3.1 million positive cases and more than 133,000 deaths, representing 25.4% and 24% of global cases and fatalities, respectively.

 

41 states in America see a gradual increase in daily cases, especially in California and Texas, the two most populous states in the U.S, where the number continued to rise in both categories; cases and deaths.

Amid rising cases in the U.S., so does the number of anti-mask protests. Reports show that people started to go against mask-wearing such as in Pennsylvania, California, Arizona and North Carolina.

 

As long as the cases are still spiking, concerns will remain in the capital market. Global stocks started to pull back and seek for safe assets instead. Fear of a second lockdown, U.S. oil price began to drop lower than $40/bbl on Friday, while the global benchmark Brent Crude traded around $41.7/bbl.

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a senior member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, on Thursday that states needed to pause the economic reopening.

“Rather than think in terms of reverting back down to a complete shutdown, I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process,” said Fauci.”There are some times when despite the guidelines and the recommendations to open up carefully and prudently, some states skipped over those and just opened up too quickly.”

 

The U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Fauci by admitting that he did not listen to his experts and said that the US was “in a good place.”

 

However, some with concerns did listen to the warning. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio just announced a cancellation for large events in the city through September 30.

“It’s all about health and safety first,” de Blasio told CNN‘s Wolf Blitzer. “This is obviously the thing that President Trump doesn’t understand. We don’t just decree that we want things to happen regardless of the human impact. We actually look at the science, we look at the data. The data is telling us it is not the time for large gatherings.”

While the country is facing a crucial turning point, it might be up to the U.S. President whether he would stay true to his word of “we won’t be closing the country again” or risking an economic downfall and close the country for good until the virus can be contained.