Are More Lockdowns Inevitable, Or Can Other Measures Stop The Surge?

With new infections rising all over the country, states are struggling to slow the spread and testing can barely keep up. People line up outside a Covid-19 testing site in New York on November 11, 2020.

Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images

As the U.S. wades deeper into a brutal fall surge of the coronavirus, Americans are living under a growing list of restrictions aimed at curbing the exponential rise of COVID-19.

They come in all shapes and sizes.

California has resorted to a curfew. Other states — including Oregon and Washington — have moved to partial lockdowns, shuttering sectors of the economy and limiting social gatherings. Quite a few states are trying to find a middle ground that staves off the economic pain of closing businesses altogether and ordering people to stay home.