As states continue to reopen gradually, a few areas have seen COVID-19 cases continue to rise. Over the weekend, states such as North Carolina, Texas and Arizona saw a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases as they entered phase one of their reopening plans.
Texas was hit the hardest of the three states over the weekend. On Saturday, the state reported more than 1,800 new cases. Meanwhile, North Carolina saw its largest one day jump as they reported 853 new cases. Not far behind, Arizona experienced more than 450 new cases on Saturday.
While the number of new cases could be a cause for alarm, many health professionals report that this could just be a byproduct of increased testing. For example, Texas officials added that 700 of the 1,800 cases came from targeted testing in two counties. Simply put, more testing will likely result in more confirmed cases.
“With more testing, we expect to see more cases,” North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen said.
“It is not surprising that we are seeing more reported cases given that we have started to reopen, people are more mobile and we’re doing a lot more testing,” Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy Senior Policy Fellow said.
Moving forward, more states will continue to reopen. New York, Maryland and Washington, D.C. are expected to begin reopening in the next few weeks.
