A growing number of states are pausing plans to reopen, amid rising case counts. But Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said shutting back down was the “last thing we want to do.”
Just 55 days after reopening Texas restaurants and other businesses, Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday hit the pause button, stopping additional phases of the state’s reopening as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations soared and as the governor struggled to pull off the seemingly impossible task of keeping both the state open and the virus under control.
The announcement by Mr. Abbott — which allows the many shopping malls, restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses already open to continue operating — was an abrupt turnaround and came as a growing number of states paused reopenings amid rising case counts.
The latest developments call into question any suggestion that the worst of the pandemic has passed in the United States, as rising outbreaks in the South and the West threaten to upend months of social distancing meant to help keep the virus at bay.
The nation recorded a new high point with 36,975 new cases on Wednesday, nearly two months after many states began to reopen with the hope of salvaging the economy and the livelihoods of millions of Americans. Alabama, Missouri, Montana and Utah all hit new daily case records on Thursday.
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Thursday that the number of people in the United States who have been infected with the coronavirus is actually about 10 times higher than the 2.3 million cases that have been reported. “We probably recognized about 10 percent of the outbreak,” Dr. Redfield said in a call with reporters.
Dr. Redfield added that between 5 and 8 percent of Americans have been infected to date.
As cases climbed in more than half the states on Thursday, the Labor Department reported that nearly 1.5 million workers filed new unemployment claims last week, the 14th week in a row that the figure has topped one million. And the outlook for the economy remained grim: More than 19 million people were still collecting state unemployment insurance, down slightly from 25 million in early May.
In a juxtaposition that reflects how far — and how little — the country has come in controlling the virus, Mr. Abbott’s announcement in Texas arrived on the same day that Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City declared the city on track to enter the next phase of reopening on July 6, allowing indoor dining and personal care services, like manicures, to resume with social distancing.
Only two months ago, it was Texas that was allowing restaurants to reopen, while Mr. de Blasio was pleading with residents to resist the impulse to gather outdoors.
Now, Texas and several other states with rising cases are scrambling. Many of the states that have seen recent spikes are run by Republicans who were initially reluctant to shut down, but not all of them.
In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, this week paused further reopenings for three weeks and ordered residents to wear masks in public. In Nevada, Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, said that “any discussion of entering Phase 3 will be tabled.”
And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has been defiantly against shutting his state back down, said he did not intend to move to the next phase of reopening.
