COVID-19 cases spike in U.S. Midwest as deaths reach over 180,000

Meanwhile, the governors of several states said they would not reduce testing as recommended the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a change many health officials say was based on political pressure and not science. Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota all recorded on Thursday the biggest one-day increases in new infections since the pandemic started. Nationally, metrics on new cases, deaths, hospitalizations and test positivity rates are all declining but there are emerging hotspots in the Midwest.