A second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has emerged in the United States, as some states have reopened their economies and more people are out and about trying to restart their lives, Bloomberg reported on June 11, 2020.

States seeing resurgence of new cases

Florida, a month into its reopening, reported 8,553 new Covid-19 cases in the second week of June -- the most of any seven-day period -- and reigniting fears of a second wave of the pandemic there.

In Texas, hospitalisations on June 9 jumped 6.3 per cent to 2,056, the highest since the pandemic emerged and the third consecutive daily increase.

California’s hospitalisations are also at their highest since May 13 and have risen in nine of the past 10 days.

The localised surges have raised alarms among experts, who see a resurgence of the virus as a possibility.

This is despite the nation’s overall case count rising just under 1 per cent early this week -- the smallest increase since March.

However, there is no clear-cut evidence that the fresh outbreaks are linked to increased economic activity weeks into states' reopening.

Mixed signals but signs are there

Experts see evidence of a second wave in Arizona, Texas, Florida and California.

But experts are also baffled as case numbers in Georgia have plateaued, despite businesses and social activity restarting for some six weeks.

Arizona’s daily tally of new cases, on the other hand, has abruptly spiked in the last two weeks, hitting an all-time high of 1,187 on June 2.

An aggressive reopening in Texas in May has led to activity to increase to pre-Covid-19 days.

Even within states, there are discrepancies.

In California, for example, San Francisco saw zero cases for three consecutive days this week, while Los Angeles County reported well over half of the state’s new cases.

California had imposed a stay-at-home order in late March.

It was the first state to shut down its economy over the coronavirus, after one of the nation’s earliest outbreaks in the San Francisco Bay Area.

It has been slower than most to reopen.

Can virus even be controlled?

In some other states, Covid-19 cases outpace increases in testing.

The concern now is whether the virus can even be controlled and whether it could overwhelm hospitals.

An increase in cases had been expected as restrictions loosened, as this trend has been observed across 22 states in recent weeks.

The increases have been steady but slow.

A national shutdown across states has helped curb the spread initially.

One plausible explanation for seeing more cases in some areas could be due to outbreaks in nursing homes and some work places, as they contribute to spikes in cases.

The U.S. has long been bracing for another wave of Covid-19 cases.

But future outbreaks are likely to take a different shape, owing to measures such as social distancing and mask-wearing.

Almost two million people in the U.S. have been confirmed infected and more than 110,000 have died.

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