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March 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Director Rochelle Walensky of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appeared to be fighting back tears during a Monday news conference as she warned Americans about her “recurring feeling of impending doom,” as seven-day COVID case counts rose across 30 states. At the same time, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was celebrating his state’s drop in COVID counts since opening businesses up and ditching mask mandates three weeks ago.
“Today the 7-day Covid positivity rate dropped to a new recorded low: 4.95%. Hospitalizations dropped to a 6 month low. This week we have 1 million 1st vaccines available,” the governor tweeted on Sunday. “Everyone now qualifies for a shot. They are highly recommended to prevent getting Covid but always voluntary.”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) also repealed his state’s mask mandate on March 2, and the state’s COVID indicators have all fallen there, as well.
Health officials and lockdown champions across the country blasted the governors when they issued an executive order rescinding the state’s mask mandate and allowing businesses of all types to “open 100 percent” as of March 10.
“The last thing, the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything is fine, take off your masks, forget it. It still matters,” said President Biden in the wake of the southern state mask repeals.
Nevertheless, Texas saw its percentage of positive COVID test results drop day on day for 10 consecutive days, from March 18 to March 28. The seven-day COVID state profile from HealthData.gov reported Texas as having a 29% drop in cases in the past week, a 14% drop in hospitalizations for COVID and 19% fewer deaths from the virus.
The state of Mississippi saw similarly positive data in the past week on record: cases are down 22% in the past week, hospitalizations for COVID fell 19%, and deaths have dropped by 15%.
Other states which recently repealed mask mandates — including Wyoming, Georgia, and Idaho — saw COVID case and death counts hold steady or fall in recent days.
By contrast, states where stringent COVID restrictions and state-enforced mask policies are still in place — such as Michigan, New York, and New Jersey — have continued to see COVID case counts and deaths rise.
Michigan added 5,177 new COVID-19 cases and 48 deaths Tuesday, as Michigan leads all states in new cases per population over the last seven days.
Pennsylvania, which has a “universal face covering” dictate, has registered a 27% increase in cases, as have other states with mask mandates, including Connecticut, Hawaii, and Massachusetts.
According to the CDC, Michigan had 361.5 new cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days, ranking second behind only New York City at 366.5 cases per 100,000 people, according to Detroit News.
Virginia has enforced mask mandates outside. Cases there climbed nearly 19% over the past two weeks, and hospitalizations for COVID infection are rising, as well, reversing a two-month decline.
Infection numbers continued to climb in other states with stringent mask mandates, including Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Washington, and West Virginia.
There seems to be little connection to mask-wearing in other states that have dropped mandates, such as Missouri and Montana, yet have seen COVID case counts increase as well.
Notwithstanding the lack of connection between case counts and mask-wearing, Biden, who continues to wear two face masks despite being fully vaccinated, switched from insulting governors who have relaxed mask measures as having “Neanderthal thinking” to pleading with them: “Please, this is not politics. Re-instate the mandate if you let it down,” he said on Tuesday.
“Let me get this straight — POTUS Biden wants Mississippi to reverse course and reinstate a mask mandate because cases are going up in New York and New Jersey,” Mississippi Governor Reeves commented on Twitter. “No thank you, Mr. President.”