South Dakota and New Mexico offer a snapshot of the alternate realities in the U.S. pandemic.

Recognized coronavirus instances in america have now surpassed 12 million, and the each day routines of an enormous variety of People at the moment are formed by their ZIP codes and governors and beliefs concerning the virus. Do they put on masks? Go to high school in particular person or on-line? Eat out? Get uncovered to the virus?

The pandemic and the nation’s disjointed response have taken the notion of two Americas to a brand new excessive. The contrasts are notably seen in South Dakota and New Mexico, states which can be residing two completely different economies: one wide-open, the opposite bolted shut.

In South Dakota, the place a conservative frontier philosophy dominates, the financial system has fared comparatively nicely, with unemployment at three.6 p.c, nicely beneath the 6.9 p.c nationwide common. Some cities, shops and faculty districts require masks or social distancing, however, as an entire, the state has the fewest restrictions of any, with neither a masks mandate nor vital limits on companies.

However hospitalization charges have been the very best within the nation, and greater than 7 p.c of the inhabitants has examined constructive. The state has the nation’s second-highest charge of recent instances.

Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, sees her method as a badge of freedom, criticizing restrictions as ineffective and economically harmful.

“You wouldn’t even know there’s a pandemic happening,” mentioned Heidi Haugan, a mom of 4 younger youngsters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s largest metropolis.

New Mexico has fewer instances per capita, however a extra alarming pattern line. Every day case numbers have greater than doubled over the previous two weeks. On Monday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, put the state’s two million residents below among the hardest restrictions within the nation, issuing a two-week stay-at-home order, banning restaurant eating, setting capability limits on grocery shops and shutting indoor malls, film theaters and gymnasiums.

And the virus has been pummeling the financial system. Unemployment in New Mexico has risen to eight p.c — roughly the identical as neighboring, Republican-led Arizona — and small-business house owners voice widespread fears about closing down.

In each South Dakota and New Mexico, individuals are hurting in comparable methods — not solely struggling financial and well being woes, however rifts with relations and buddies over the virus and learn how to combat it.

Allison Byington, who lives in South Dakota, mentioned her mom just lately known as her a assassin for refusing to put on a face masks. “We don’t have a relationship anymore,” Ms. Byington mentioned.