Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield, MD, shared his thoughts about the Midwestern states where cases are rising during a recent interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Howard Bauchner, MD. The middle of the country “is getting stuck,” he said, which, combined with a coming flu season, is a significant concern. “We don’t need to have a third wave in the heartland right now. We need to prevent that particularly as we’re coming to the fall.” The virus is likely to continue to spread across rural America, which has been “largely unaffected to date” by the coronavirus outbreak, said former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD. “Really, an outbreak can happen anywhere.” The following are midwestern states seeing a current surge in COVID-19 cases. Read on to see if yours is one of them. And for some encouraging news on a state that has experienced some positive developments regarding COVID-19, check out This Former “Red Zone” State Now Has the Lowest Infection Rate in the U.S. Things were looking relatively good for The Hoosier State as recently as two weeks ago, as daily infections had fallen to under 500 on Aug. 19th, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Since then, however, there has been a steady increase in daily cases, peaking on Aug. 24th at 1,660 patients—which represents the most reported on a single day since the outbreak started. Indiana reopened on June 10th, which—not surprisingly—coincided with steady rise in daily infections. For more, check out: 10 States on the Brink of Becoming COVID Hotspots, According to Experts. According to Johns Hopkins, Iowa has seen a sharp spike in daily COVID-19 infections since Aug. 19th, which saw only 322 everyday infections. By comparison, the state’s record high of nearly 2,700 reported cases came on Aug. 27th—the highest since the outbreak began for The Hawkeye State. Kansas might be known as The Free State, but it is far from free from COVID-19. On May 19th, Governor Laura Kelly started phase 2 of a limited re-opening of the state, and, on that date, Kansas experienced only 50 daily infections. But daily cases have been on a slow and steady increase since then, with more than 1,000 infections reported on Aug. 27th. According to Johns Hopkins, Michigan appeared to have a real handle on the virus in early June, with a mere 15 new reported cases of COVID-19. By Aug. 30th, however, there has been a slow and steady incline of daily cases, with nearly 1,400 infections reported. For more coronavirus news, check out The Only State That’s Seen a Second COVID Peak. The timeline of daily infections in Minnesota shows a similar pattern of ups and downs. Unfortunately, it is currently on the rise. Aug. 27th saw an all-time high of daily infections of over 1,550 new cases, which is up sharply from 222 daily cases on June 15th. Relative to the other states listed here, The Cornhusker State has seen a less dramatic increase in daily COVID-19 infections. According to Johns Hopkins, Aug. 23rd saw only 109 cases, but that had nearly tripled to 317 cases on Aug. 29th. Still, this is a marked improvement from the over 700 daily infections logged on May 1st. This may be why The CDC Director Just Gave Middle America This Eerie Wake-Up Call.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Of all the states listed here, North Dakota may have the sharpest increase in coronavirus cases over the past week or so. According to Johns Hopkins, Aug. 29th saw a record high of infections of 374. That may not seem terribly high, but throughout the month of June, North Dakota averaged roughly 35 new daily infections. The Buckeye State definitely saw the worst rise of daily coronavirus cases from June 15th through the end of July, which saw a peak of cases of over 1,700 cases on July 31st. While things slowed down—and the curve began to flatten—there has been a troubling trend upwards from over 600 cases on Aug 23rd to nearly 1,300 on Aug. 28th, according to Johns Hopkins. South Dakota averaged less than 100 daily cases throughout most of the summer, according to Johns Hopkins. But since 66 daily infections were reported on Aug. 26th, cases nearly grew ten-fold on the next day, coming in over 600. What was behind the sudden surge? The Sturgis bike rally, apparently, which not only led to the widespread of the virus but also has made South Dakota The One State Doing the Worst at Managing COVID Infections Right Now.
