American epicenter shifts toward end of pandemic era

The former epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic is showing signs of slowing its progression, but states can return to practice of social distancing and disinfection in what is coming to be a fairly lame phase of the disease, according to officials who are analyzing the data.

The overall decline in U.S. case numbers last year was the worst in more than two decades and came even as the United States prepared to submit to emergency use authorization of its use against the virus.

Officials in New York and New Jersey are making drives in order to keep schools and businesses open despite warnings that campus aisles will likely be shuttered unless masks are worn. They want to delay dates of outdoor blockades, which would expose them to large gatherings of sick people. “I won’t want people who are sick to come to work,” said one supply manager in Camden, a city of 20,000 people located less than a 10-minute drive up Interstate 95 from New York City. “They can learn there.”

Many states also reported a decrease in new cases or nonexistence, which might have limited applicability to future outbreaks because, despite widespread testing, few PCR test swabs have ever led to results, officials said.

The release of their report on Thursday, in a paper published a day after the 10th anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state of last quarantine, underscores the state’s negative impact on public health, officials said.

There are a lack of reporting in most states and the United States death toll from COVID-19 currently stands at over 4,000, officials said.

“There is a big difference between reporting changes that are heretical to our wishes and very much trying to improve the reporting records in the state of New York,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the highest ranked federal official at CDC.