Officials across U.S. give COVID-19 updates after 144,000 new cases reported

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker on Thursday told residents who want to hold a small in-person Thanksgiving gathering to start quarantining now ahead of the holiday to curb the latest surge of coronavirus. Pritzker also commended the city of Chicago's decision to impose a stay-at-home advisory and an indoor/outdoor gathering cap of 10 people at businesses.

Read more here.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is urging residents to avoid gatherings and parties as coronavirus cases rise in the city. "We are at another critical point," Walsh said Thursday at a press conference streamed live on CBSN Boston. "Last time I said something like that was probably back in May."

There were 355 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in Boston reported Thursday. "Today's the largest case number I think we've seen since maybe June, in the city of Boston," Walsh said, CBS Boston reported.

The neighborhoods with the highest positive rates of Covid-19 are Dorchester, Mattapan and East Boston. Roxbury and Roslindale increased 10% last week.

New state guidelines that went into effect last week include a stay at home advisory between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. and limiting private gatherings at homes to 10 people inside and 25 people outside.

Walsh urged residents to avoid hosting and attending parties.

"When you have 300-plus cases in one day in Boston, we haven't seen those numbers since the beginning of the virus, whenever they were shut down," Walsh said. "We don't want to go back to that place. So we're asking people to please pay attention to suggested recommendations."

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health was expected to give COVID-19 briefing Thursday as cases there continue to climb. 

Mayor Eric Garcetti's office sent out a citywide alert this week reminding people about the spike in cases and urging them to get tested if they feel symptoms. Garcetti's office said with the holiday season approaching, the rise in cases must be taken seriously, CBS Los Angeles reports.

Health officials have blamed an increase in public and private gatherings for the surge in cases, and they said that upcoming winter celebrations could make the problem worse.

"If we don't slow the spread now, we're heading into a very unfortunate holiday season," said L.A. County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer. She urged all residents to re-commit to basic infection control methods, including mask wearing and social distancing.

Delaware County, Pennsylvania, held a 2 p.m. Zoom press conference to discuss rapidly increasing COVID-19 numbers and the effect they've had on county hospitals.

It was streamed live on CBSN Philly.

Chicago officials announced Thursday that a stay-at-home advisory for the city will go into effect on Monday. It calls on residents to stay home unless it is essential to go out, stop having guests over, avoid unnecessary travel and cancel traditional Thanksgiving plans.

"We're asking you to avoid any non essential travel. And if you must travel, then you must either quarantine for 14 days, or depending upon the state confirm a negative COVID test before coming back," said Mayor Lori Lightfoot Thursday at a press conference live streamed on CBSN Chicago. "You must cancel the normal Thanksgiving plans, particularly if they include guests that do not live in your immediate household."

State public health officials reported 12,702 new confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases in Illinois on Thursday, the third day in a row Illinois has set a new daily case count record. Illinois also reported a new high of more than 5,200 coronavirus hospitalizations,  CBS Chicago reports. 

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said Thursday he will sign an executive order that gives municipalities and counties across the state the option to regulate operating hours of non-essential businesses after 8 p.m.

"Our surgical approach empowers local officials to take actions to prevent localized hotspots from becoming COVID wildfires," he tweeted. 

Murphy also said New Jersey is one of the first states to receive Cue Health's molecular rapid test and that a distribution plan is being developed so the tests can be deployed to vulnerable communities.

The governor gave his latest coronavirus briefing Thursday with Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, State Epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan, and State Police Superintendent Colonel Patrick Callahan. It was streamed live on CBSN New York.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine held a COVID-19 press conference Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern. 

It was streamed live on CBSN Philly.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday a "huge outreach effort" is underway to fight a COVID-19 surge on Staten Island, CBS New York reports.

"A lot of information being provided, masks being provided, more and more testing," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday at a press conference streamed live on CBSN New York. "The kinds of approaches that have worked time and again in recent months in other parts of the city can and will work in Staten Island." 

Staten Island, New York City's largest COVID-19 hot spot, welcomed new testing sites Thursday. There are 10 new locations, including a rapid-testing site at the St. George Terminal of the Staten Island Ferry.

The rapid test uses a shorter swab, and patients get their results in as little as 15 minutes. Testing is free, regardless of health insurance or documentation status.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo labeled Staten Island a yellow zone micro-cluster Wednesday and set new regulations across the state. 

The Montgomery County Board of Health in Pennsylvania held a special meeting Thursday via Zoom. They considered an order to move schools to 100% virtual instruction for two weeks starting November 23.

It was live on CBSN Philly.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said his state is seeing the coronavirus spread to all rural counties. "In fact our rural counties are leading in a number of cases," which is a "big change" from the summer and spring, when that wasn't the case.

"It's moving much faster than it moved in the spring or in the summer," he said Thursday on "CBS This Morning."

DeWine suggested this is rooted in people being indoors due to colder weather, and general fatigue with the pandemic.

"I mean, they're just really fatigued with this whole situation," he said.

DeWine announced new measures this week to help slow the virus's spread. He issued new orders on mask enforcement at businesses and threatened to close restaurants, bars and fitness centers.

Watch his full interview:

Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board, said people need to wear masks and social distance to get the virus in the United States under control."

And now that we're indoors more we need to be keeping windows and doors open as much as possible," she told "CBS This Morning" on Thursday. "We need to be getting tested frequently, and if somebody reaches out to you, a contract tracer reaches out to you about a potential exposure, please work with them so that we can help identify where the virus is spreading."

Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital, noted that mask wearing has become politicized, adding: "It would be like politicizing the use of toilet paper."

"This is a very basic hygienic public health measure that we need — all of us need to be taking personal responsibility, for ourselves, for our health, for the health of our family, the health of our community," she said. "And we need to mask up. That is something that is in our power to do right now and can make a tremendous difference in curbing the spread of the disease."

She also said she doesn't like the word "lockdown," which implies an on or off switch, "when really what we're talking about is a dimmer switch, or a dial."

What we need to be "tightening up right now" is indoor dining and other things like going to bars and indoor gyms," she said. Indoor dining is "a major spreader of the infection" and we need to figure out creative ways to do more dining outdoors and "put a pause on indoor dining."

Watch her full interview: