News emerging from Wuhan, China, and the American heartland presented a study in contrasts Wednesday as officials in both countries struggled to control the spread of COVID-19 without completely shutting down their economies.
Six new coronavirus cases were identified this week in Wuhan, China — seat of Hubei province and original epicenter of the global pandemic — after more than a month with no new diagnoses. In response, Chinese health officials have begun testing all 11 million residents of the city during a planned “10-day mass battle,” National Public Radio reported.
Five of the new cases were asymptomatic and all came from the same community, according to NPR. Hubei province began easing its lockdown in late March.
China, like the United States, has tried to jump-start its economy and reopen for business. Over the weekend, China reported 17 new cases, many in the country’s northeast, according to France 24.
Meanwhile, cases have increased in the U.S. as states move to reopen their economies — especially in areas previously seeing less impact from the pandemic. Citing White House data from May 7, NBC News reported that cities in the American heartland are experiencing sharp per capita spikes in COVID-19 cases. In some cities, week-to-week growth was exponential, with Central City, Kentucky, reporting a 650% increase.
Charlotte, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Missouri, each saw greater than 200% increases of COVID-19 cases, according to NBC News.
The surge is notably centered in Republican strongholds — like Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and the Dakotas — where governors have resisted imposing safe-at-home orders, or have relaxed them in an effort to revive business, The Guardian reported.
These states felt less of the pandemic’s initial impact than typically blue coastal and metropolitan areas, where officials imposed more severe lockdown measures in response.
President Donald Trump has encouraged all states to relax those measures in order to restart their economies.
“The numbers are really coming down very substantially, and this weekend was one of the lowest we’ve had. The numbers are coming down very rapidly, all throughout the country, by the way,” Trump said Monday, in what appears to be an oversimplification of projected positive tests from across the nation, The Washington Post reported.
Trump has supported businesses that have rebelled against shutdown orders and opened ahead of local government essential business guidelines.
As of Wednesday, more than 82,800 people in the U.S. have died from the coronavirus and upwards of 1.3 million have tested positive, according to Johns Hopkins.