There are over nine million cases of COVID-19 in the United States. More than 230,000 people have died as a result of contacting this infectious disease. Many healthcare organizations are working to develop a vaccine for the disease.
Right now, difficulty breathing and high fever are the two major symptoms of someone who has the virus. Scientists are predicting the possibility of an early vaccine appearing in December 2020, others believe there will absolutely be multiple ones available in Spring 2021.
The President of the United States has not mandated for all states to wear masks and use social distances. All 50 governors have had to make the decision on behalf of their constituents. Over the weekend, Utah had experienced a record-breaking number of new infections and deaths within the state. Gov. Gary Herbert has declared a state of emergency.
He is concerned if the state’s healthcare infrastructure can accommodate such a high number of new patients. Even though he did not agree with the idea of mandating the wearing of masks, Gov. Herbert has changed his mind due to the new public health circumstances and has announced that it is mandatory to wear a mask while in public in Utah.
Any citizen that does not wear a mask in public is subject to a fine distributed by law enforcement. The new restrictions will be in place today (Monday) at 1 p.m. until Nov. 23. Unlike other states, the restrictions do not apply to schools and churches. While it may be challenging for people to gather for church services or attend school, the state of Utah is doing something unconventional and not applying the restrictions to these two settings.
Many other states have been successful with applying restrictions to these two areas. Many religious services have been meeting online during the pandemic and many students are going to school virtually from home. It is unclear why the Governor choose to avoid these settings, presumably the public will be cautious particularly going to places of worship where hundreds of people will be gathering without social distancing. In the United States, the coronavirus is going through its “second wave”.
Originally it was projected that Kansas City and surrounding territories in the Mid-west were going to see a significant rise in the number of new infections. While the Mid-West has its challenges, the eastern and western coasts of the country have been adversely affected by the coronavirus at a higher rate, which makes it odd that Utah would have such a large rise in new cases.
It was recently announced that Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential Election. In the cities that helped Biden acquire his final delegates, needed to reach 270 in the electoral college, thousands of mask-wearing supporters in various cities took to the streets to celebrate. Many of them did not use social distancing, but they could not refrain from cheering on the new leadership in America and saying goodbye to the controversial leadership of the last four years. President Elect Joe Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris are preparing their transition team to be prepared to implement strategies for containing the coronavirus once they take office.
It has been stated by scientist that if everyone in the country would wear their masks for six to eight consecutive weeks the United States could contain the virus. One problem is that millions of Americans do not want to wear masks. Utah’s governor was one of those people until the suffering became too much to bear.