'America is failing the test': Paul Krugman issues dire warning about COVID-19 as cases surge in multiple states

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't been in headlines as much over the last two weeks, the disease is still killing roughly 1,000 Americans a day and many states are seeing surges in cases.

In his latest New York Times column, Paul Krugman argues that the United States has all but given up on trying to contain the novel coronavirus and is instead resigning itself to thousands more people dying of the disease.

The U.S. is doing this, Krugman writes, even though several other countries have offered blueprints for beating the virus.

"You have to be strict and you have to be patient, staying the course until the pandemic is over, not giving in to the temptation to return to normal life while the virus is still widespread," he argues. "And America is failing that test."

While even countries such as Italy and Spain have seen dramatic drops in new COVID-19 cases despite getting hit hard by the disease early on, the United States is still averaging more than 20,000 new cases a day, and the new number of cases has only dropped marginally from a month ago.

Writing on Twitter, Krugman also cites a Washington Post article showing that new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging in states such as California, Arizona and Texas.

What's more, reports the Post, "data from states that are reporting some of their highest seven-day averages of new cases is disproving the notion that the country is seeing such a spike in cases solely because of the continued increase in testing."