Just a couple of weeks ago, New York City seemed like a relative bright spot in the U.S. coronavirus struggle. Just a couple of weeks ago, New York City seemed like a relative bright spot in the U.S. coronavirus struggle. The moves in Los Angeles and Rhode Island reflected widening fears of a potentially devastating winter COVID-19 surge. But even if it is milder, the new variant could still overwhelm health systems because of the sheer number of infections. The country is averaging nearly 130,500 new COVID-19 cases a day, up from about 122,000 a day two weeks ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
