The outlook is especially dire in the Great Lakes region. Pennsylvania, Indiana and Minnesota all exceeded their previous single-day records on Thursday by more than 1,000 cases. Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio warned that hospitalizations had soared to record levels. Wisconsin surpassed 300,000 known cases this week, an increase of more than 130,000 in just a month.
“Covid-19 is everywhere in our state,” said Julie Willems Van Dijk, the deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. “It is bad everywhere, and it is getting worse everywhere.”
In Illinois, where more than 75,000 cases have emerged in the last, Gov. J.B. Pritzker suggested that he could soon impose a stay-at-home order, and he scolded local officials for not enforcing mask rules and restrictions on businesses.
“We’re running out of time and we’re running out of options,” Mr. Pritzker said.
And in New York City, an early hot spot now facing a possible second wave, the mayor warned on Friday that public schools could close as early as Monday if the seven-day average positivity rate surpasses 3 percent. Private residential gatherings must be limited to 10 people beginning at 10 p.m.
New York’s governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, said he believed that the situation is going to “continue to deteriorate in the coming weeks,” and that he was planning an emergency meeting with his counterparts in six northeastern states.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, appeared on “CBS This Morning” on Friday to repeat his pleas to Americans to take the virus seriously.
“If we do the things that are simple public health measures, that soaring will level and start to come down,” he said. “You add that to the help of a vaccine, we can turn this around. It is not futile.”
