White House Cases Coincide With Brief Capital-Wide Covid Spike

(Bloomberg) -- The nation’s capital saw a brief surge in Covid-19 cases this week, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s illness.

So far, it’s not clear whether the ever-expanding White House cluster is affecting the broader Washington community, which had been in a stretch of relatively low infections.

Daily cases hit 105 on Monday, the most since June 2, but then dropped back to 45 Tuesday, according to local government data and the Covid Tracking Project. The data is volatile and cases are typically higher for Mondays, but the seven-day average -- which provides a more reliable indication of the trend -- reached 53 on Tuesday, the most since mid-September.

Washington’s current Covid-19 hospitalizations also climbed to 105 for Monday, the most since late July, before dropping to 103 Tuesday.

It may prove hard to disaggregate any White House effect from the incipient rebound in Covid-19 across the East Coast, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Moreover, federal employees tested by the government, or who haven’t declared themselves District of Columbia residents, often aren’t reflected in local counts.

The seven-day ratio of new cases to tests was about 1.5% as of Tuesday, trending slightly upwards from late September lows of around 1.1%.

Across the U.S., there were 41,871 new cases reported Tuesday, bringing the total to about 7.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University data. More than 211,000 Americans have died.

Although totals have dropped in large states including California and Florida, new cases are rising in most states, with some of the most dramatic surges in the Midwest and West.

Elsewhere:

• Current coronavirus hospitalizations hit highs in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Montana and Wyoming, according to Covid Tracking Project data.
• In New York, they hit the highest since July; Connecticut the highest since June; New Jersey and Pennsylvania the highest since early August.
• New York City accounted for about half of the Covid-19 hospitalizations in New York state.

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