June 9, 2020 / By Erika Edwards
Businesses are slowly reopening. “Six feet apart” seems to be shrinking in distance. Face coverings are optional in most places.
Some may believe the COVID-19 pandemic is ending in the United States, but in truth, “we are still in a pandemic,” according to Dr. Jay Butler, head of the COVID-19 response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
Many people in the U.S. remain vulnerable to the disease, and the pandemic will continue as long as there’s a readily transmissible virus and a population with little or no immunity to it, Butler told NBC News.
While the nation’s cases overall have flattened, they are not yet declining — 10,000 to 20,000 new cases of the coronavirus are reported every day in states and U.S. territories.
In some states, new daily cases are rising. In the past week, eight states — Vermont, Missouri, Michigan, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, Massachusetts and Florida — and Puerto Rico have reported at least a 50 percent increase in COVID-19 cases from the previous week.