New York, March 26 (RHC)-- Across the United States, new coronavirus infections continued to increase exponentially, with 13,000 newly confirmed cases reported Wednesday, pushing the nationwide total above 68,000. 

Over one thousand people have died in the United States.  Louisiana, with one of the fastest infection rates in the world, marked its largest one-day increase, bringing its toll to 65 dead and nearly 2,000 infected.  In neighboring Mississippi, Republican Governor Tate Reeves defied calls for an emergency stay-at-home order, declaring, “Mississippi is never going to be China.”  The Washington Post reports 140 U.S. nursing homes have recorded at least one coronavirus case.

The Pentagon has ordered a 60-day freeze on troop movements overseas, with at least 415 Department of Defense employees testing positive for coronavirus.  Attorney General William Barr has directed federal prosecutors to charge anyone deliberately spreading, or threatening to spread, coronavirus with terrorism.

Amazon says it will keep its massive fulfillment centers open amid a surge of online orders, after workers in at least eight Amazon warehouses around the U.S. tested positive for COVID-19.  In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, hundreds of sanitation workers held a wildcat strike Wednesday demanding more protection from the virus.