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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. was gripped by two public health crises in 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic and a historic rise in gun violence.

Even as cities locked down, people retreated into their homes and life was seemingly put on pause last year, 2020 still marked the deadliest year for gun violence in at least two decades, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

There were more than 19,400 homicides involving a gun and accidental fatal shootings — a 25% increase from 2019, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. Gun suicides reached 24,000 last year, matching the year prior.

Experts say it’s not easy to identify one precise reason for the rise in gun violence.

Rather, 2020 was a turbulent time that presented COVID-19 concerns and economic downturn as well as a racial reckoning that rocked communities in multiple ways, including massive protests and civil unrest.

It also was a time when an estimated 23 million guns were purchased — a 65% increase from 2019, according to Small Arms Analytics, a consulting firm that tracks gun sales. It is unclear if the increase in gun purchases was linked to the increase in gun violence and research is split on the connection generally.

The violence unfolded across the country, big and small cities alike. Overall, 57% of 129 law enforcement agencies surveyed across the nation by the Police Executive Research Forum reported an increase in gun homicides from 2019 to 2020, according to the January 2021 report.

The agencies serving the biggest cities reported a 75% increase in firearm homicides in 2020 compared to 2019, and all surveyed agencies also reported a nearly 70% increase in nonfatal shootings.

Colorado mother-of-three Ana Thallas’ life changed forever amid the pandemic when her daughter Isabella was fatally shot while walking her dog with her boyfriend in a Denver park on June 10, 2020, just two days after her 21st birthday. Her boyfriend was shot twice by the suspect but survived.

The Denver District Attorney’s office said that Michael Close, 37, allegedly got into an argument with the couple “over a command they used to have their dog defecate,” and he opened fire with an assault rifle.

“I never thought my daughter would be slaughtered mid-morning walking a dog in the middle of the city,” Thallas told ABC News. “This pandemic has created fear within people. Just having to be secluded, cooped up and isolated contributed to the mental health crisis. Fear turns into anger, and the anger turns into violence.”

2020 was a ‘perfect storm’

Dr. Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, said 2020 was the “perfect storm” of conditions where “everything bad happened at the same time — you had the COVID outbreak, huge economic disruption, people were scared.”

At the same time, after-school programs and violence disruption programs were greatly restricted, plus 2020 was an election year, during which gun purchases tend to rise for fear that the new administration will change gun policies, Webster said.

“It’s particularly challenging to know with certainty which of these things independently is associated with the increased violence. Rather it was the ‘cascade’ of events all unfolding in a similar time frame,” he added.

For instance, as kids moved to at-home online learning due to school closures and many parents either lost jobs or had to work remotely — all while grappling with financial stress and social isolation — there was gun violence in some of their homes.

From March to December 2020, unintentional shooting deaths by children rose 31% over the same time in 2019, resulting in 128 gun deaths, according to the Everytown #NotAnAccident Index.

Unsafe storage likely played a role, experts say. A January study by the University of California, Davis violence prevention research program found “more than 50,000 Californians said they had started storing at least one of their firearms in the least secure way — loaded and not locked up,” Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, an assistant professor with VPRP who led the study said. “Approximately half of those respondents lived in homes with children or teens.”

People changed how they stored guns based on “fear and anxiety and pandemic-induced uncertainty about the future,” the study found.

But storing a firearm unsecured is a massive risk, Kravitz-Wirtz said, especially for unintentional shootings and suicide. Approximately 60% of gun deaths are suicides according to CDC data.

Although preliminary CDC data shows that overall suicides in the U.S. slightly decreased in 2020 compared to the year prior, gun suicides still surpassed 24,000, just as they did in 2019.

Another way gun violence played out in homes was through domestic violence incidents.

A study entitled “Firearm purchasing and firearm violence during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.” analyzed data from March through July 2020 and found that excess firearm purchasing was associated with an increase in firearm injuries from domestic violence in April and May, “particularly during the early months where social distancing was at its highest point,” said Julia P. Schleimer, the main author of the report with UC Davis’ violence prevention research program. The authors say that linking firearm violence to civil unrest and other factors during summer of 2020 had to be studied further.

The pandemic led to an 8% increase in calls for domestic violence services in March, April and May, the initial three months of the pandemic, in 14 large U.S. cities, according to a study published in Journal of Public Economics.

The Domestic Violence Hotline also received the highest incoming volume in its history, with over 636,000 calls, chats and texts in 2020, including a 19% rise in callers experiencing the use or threat of firearms last year, according to the organization.

The pandemic may have put many people in a vulnerable situation as research shows that access to a gun makes it five times more likely that a woman will die at the hands of a domestic abuser, according to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence.

Impact on Black and Latino communities ​

An analysis of nine U.S. cities found that over 85% of the increase in gun violence from 2019 to 2020 was in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

These groups had to deal with the converging crises in 2020: coronavirus and gun violence. They were already disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, with Black and Hispanic people nearly twice as likely to die from COVID-19, according to CDC data.

At the same time, Black people are 10 times more likely to die from gun homicide than white people, according to an Everytown analysis of the CDC’s Underlying Cause of Death database. In 2019, Latino people were nearly twice as likely to be killed by guns than non-Hispanic whites, according to a study from the Violence Policy Center.

In the pandemic, these groups also were disproportionately affected by job loss and financial strife compared to white households, according to a summer 2020 poll by NPR, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Further, these more than half of all Black, Latino and Native American workers hold essential and nonessential jobs that must be done in person, compared to 41% of white workers, even as many jobs went remote out of safety precautions, according to a December 2020 report by the Urban Institute.

John Donohue, a Stanford University law professor who studies gun violence, said time periods of stress are associated with more shootings.

“It does seem that the dislocations of the pandemic were in neighborhoods that were more vulnerable to both the economic insecurities and just pressures of a more stressful life,” Donahue said. “The pandemic was a major disruption.”

Kravitz-Wirtz told ABC News that the violence was concentrated “in neighborhoods that have experienced systemic racism and disinvestment.”

The closure of community centers and suspension of many violence prevention organizations also led to “destabilization that can really create the conditions for violence to emerge,” she added.

As gun violence played out in homes and communities, law enforcement also faced challenges responding to crime due to COVID-19 concerns and tensions with the public.

Donohue said civil unrest and police played a role in the storm.

Officers couldn’t be “as effective in stopping crime,” because they were responding to protests around the country in 2020 decrying racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death by Minneapolis police, Donohue said.

Several police agencies also reported they scaled back proactive enforcement due to the pandemic, such as making fewer traffic stops and suspending gun buyback programs, the Police Executive Research Forum said in their January 2021 report.

“You had police departments overtaxed in response to COVID because their officers were getting sick. Then you had the George Floyd murder and ripple effects from protests and then often violent response by law enforcement,” Webster said. “There is a clear connection between trust in police and community safety, all of this takes a toll on public safety.”

Increase in gun ownership

Researchers at the UC Davis violence prevention research program issued a statewide survey in July 2020 that asked respondents specifically if they acquired a gun due to the pandemic as well as their concerns about violence in the health crisis. They found that an estimated 110,000 California adults acquired a firearm in response to fears stemming from the pandemic, including 47,000 new firearm owners, according to the January study.

The survey respondents who bought firearms mainly did so for protection, with 76% saying they were concerned about lawlessness, 56% about prisoner releases and 49% that the government was going too far due to changes during the pandemic.

One in 10 residents surveyed also expressed fear that someone they knew may intentionally harm someone or themselves due to pandemic losses including losing a loved one, job or housing.

Experts are split on whether the stunning rise in gun purchases will fuel future firearm violence.

While there is a broad field of research that provides evidence that gun availability increases the risk for firearm violence, 2020 is unique in that other compounding factors are at play.

Last year’s trends have already continued into 2021, with over 31,000 gun violence deaths recorded, according to Gun Violence Archive data, and over 27 million background checks initiated so far, according to National Instant Criminal Background Check System data.

Schleimer, who studied firearm purchases and firearm violence in 2020, said it’s possible that increased firearm access and continuing stressors could “result in an increased risk of firearm violence moving forward.”

The US can ‘shift the trajectory’

Donohue, though, forecasts some of the violence could taper off with the end of the pandemic.

“As the pandemic recedes, you’ll get some restoration of normality,” he said. “But we still are going to have to contend with the politicians, growing power of weaponry and its increasing availability and tensions between the public and the police — all unhelpful for restricting crime.”

Kravitz-Wirtz said there’s been “positive momentum” to reverse the pandemic’s trend of gun violence. But she warned that root issues of inequality need to be addressed through “thriving wage” jobs, housing security and youth empowerment programs especially in Black and brown communities.

“There’s a real opportunity now,” Kravitz-Wirtz said. “We can really shift the trajectory that we’ve been experiencing in positive directions if we can follow through on the data-informed and community wisdom-informed strategies.”

On a national and state level, there have been efforts to mitigate gun violence. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced federal strike forces in five major cities to take down gun trafficking corridors over the summer, and President Joe Biden unveiled several executive actions to combat the rise in shootings. The administration has also allowed coronavirus relief funds to be used for community violence intervention.

In Colorado, Thallas helped get the Isabella Joy Act passed in honor of her daughter. It requires gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement within five days of realizing the weapon is missing. The Denver Police Department said the shooter in Isabella’s case had taken a rifle from a friend’s home without their knowledge or permission, CBS Denver affiliate KCNC reported.

Thallas is now calling for the act, which went into effect last month, to be implemented nationally.

“Unfortunately I don’t see an end to this [gun] epidemic. Encouraging responsible gun ownership would be more realistic,” Thallas said. “It’s our family that pays the life sentence with Isabella’s death. Don’t doubt this couldn’t be you. Be proactive, not reactive.”

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(NEW YORK) — In New York City, where a vaccine mandate for municipal workers is now in effect, 18 fire companies are out of service due to sick calls Monday, but no firehouses are closed and the mayor said there were no immediate disruptions to city services.

Nearly all New York City municipal workers, including police officers, firefighters and EMTs, had until 5 p.m. Friday to get at least one shot or be placed on unpaid leave, starting Monday. While the official deadline was Friday, those who got vaccinated over the weekend will not be placed on leave.

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said he couldn’t say how many fire companies were understaffed Monday morning because it “changes by the minute.” But Nigro did call on firefighters to stop misusing sick leave and report to work.

“There are understaffed units. That understaffing could end immediately if members stopped going sick when they weren’t sick,” Nigro said. “Once the members come to their senses and stop using medical leave improperly, they can help out not just the citizens of the city but their brothers and sisters staffing the units.”

Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro and FDNY-Fire Officers Association President Jim McCarthy said at a Monday news conference that they tried to negotiate for more time for members to be able to file for exemptions, decide on retirement or get the shot.

About 9,000 municipal workers were on leave without pay Monday, representing about 6% of the total city workforce, said Danielle Filson, the mayor’s press secretary.

“Mandates work,” Filson said. “That number will continue to decrease. The remaining have pending accommodations/exemption requests. They are working and subject to weekly testing.”

Of the municipal departments, the Department of Corrections, which faces a later compliance deadline, currently has the most unvaccinated workers, followed by the FDNY, which has an 80% vaccination rate.

ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.

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(TEXARKANA, TX.) — A search is ongoing in eastern Texas for a gunman who opened fire at a Halloween party attended by “at least a couple hundred” revelers, killing one and injuring nine, according to police.

The shooting started around 11:56 p.m. Saturday at Octavia’s Activity Center in Texarkana, according to a statement Sunday morning from the Texarkana Police Department.

“When they (police officers) got there, they encountered a large number of people running from the building and several inside suffering from gunshot wounds,” the police statement reads.

The gunman left the venue in a vehicle, setting off a massive search in eastern Texas.

A 20-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was mortally wounded and later pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.

Nine other people wounded in the shooting were taken to Wadley Regional Medical Center and CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital by ambulance and private vehicles, authorities said. None of them initially appeared to suffer life-threatening injuries, police said.

Officer Shawn Vaughn of the Texarkana Police Department said numerous 911 calls were made, prompting all patrol officers working at the time to respond, while another patrol shift was summoned to handle calls on the street, according to ABC affiliate station KTBS in Shreveport, Louisiana.

“When we got here, I understand there was a large crowd in the parking lot involved in several fights,” Vaughn said. “So, we requested assistance from any and everybody that was available.”

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(WASHINGTON) — There was a sense of danger and urgency in the air at Hamid Karzai International Airport on the evening of Aug. 26. Sixteen hours earlier, the U.S. Embassy had warned American citizens to stay away from the airport, and intelligence suggested an attack could be imminent.

But Marine Sgt. Tyler Andrews had decided to use his down time from his sniper team’s overwatch position at Hamid Karzai International Airport to help get Afghans inside to safety and eventual evacuation from a country taken over by the resurgent Taliban.

A fellow serviceman and friend of Andrews was walking toward Abbey Gate, along the southeast edge of the airport, to meet up with him when an ISIS-K terrorist detonated his suicide vest, killing 13 U.S. troops and nearly 170 Afghan civilians.

“It knocked me to the ground,” the friend, who asked not to be named, told ABC News. “I got up and turned around, and then I see the plume of smoke behind me.”

Looking toward the gate he saw a Marine engulfed in flames being pushed to the ground and rolled. He saw another running in his direction, covered in blood, calling for a corpsman. Eventually, among the casualties, he saw Andrews.

His friend was alive.

Though he survived, Tyler lost his entire left leg and his right arm just above the elbow. He was first moved to Germany for treatment, and later to the esteemed Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he continues to receive “emergency medical care,” according to the family.

The 23-year-old Marine made his first public statement since the attack on social media earlier this month, posted along with a photo from his hospital chair.

“Let me start by saying that these past almost 2 months have indeed been hard. I have been trying to figure out what I want to say and how to say it. The outpouring of support from friends, family, organizations, and even just complete strangers has been unreal. I won’t ever be able to thank everyone enough, but still, thank you,” Andrews wrote.

In a particularly wrenching segment of his statement, Andrews expressed his difficulty in sharing the recent picture.

“I hate the way I look right now and I’m working mentally on coming to terms with loss of my right arm and my left leg,” he wrote.

Putting aside the hospital setting and obvious injuries, Andrews looks like a model infantry Marine — tattooed, fit, with a well-manicured mustache and full coif of hair. Only when compared to older images does the extent of the change become evident.

A video shot at a gym in Saudi Arabia two weeks before the bombing shows Andrews deadlifting 530 pounds — arms, shoulders, chest bulging from his tank top.

“Laying in bed for almost 2 months has caused me to lose everything I had worked for physically,” he wrote.

Tyler has undergone 29 surgeries so far, “with numerous more ahead,” according to a family statement given to ABC News.

“His recovery efforts include extensive physical therapy and will take many years,” the statement said.

Despite all this, Tyler conveys a remarkably dogged, even humorous tone.

“Some days are better than others, but you best believe I will still strive to be the best version of myself regardless of these injuries. I just have new challenges now and physically am a different person, but I’ll see how far I can go with this new body haha,” Tyler wrote.

And he’ll have help throughout his recovery.

“He’s as tough as they come,” said Faun O’Neel, who runs a military and first responder support organization called Warfighter Overwatch with her husband, Danny.

The nonprofit has raised more than $25,000 to directly support Tyler and his family, according to O’Neel. A GoFundMe campaign created by members of Tyler’s unit has itself garnered more than $360,000 for the family.

Andrews is the last of the Marines injured in the Kabul suicide blast still at Walter Reed, which is far from both his hometown of Folsom, California, and his former duty station with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, at Camp Pendleton.

Visits and calls from comrades help stave off loneliness, and Warfighter Overwatch has used the funds it helped raise to rent an apartment just across from the hospital for his mother, an attorney in Folsom, as long as she needs it.

Warfighter Overwatch has also paired with Folsom-based Design Shop to renovate the family home to make it as comfortable as possible for his eventual return, O’Neel said.

Given the extent of his injuries, Andrews could be at Walter Reed for years.

But the last thing Andrews wants is pity, according to the friend who was walking to meet him when the bomb detonated in August. Based on recent phone calls to Walter Reed, Andrews sounds like a much better source of inspiration than pity.

“When we talked to him he was already like, ‘Yeah, man, I only got about a year and then I can start lifting again,'” the friend said.

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(NEW YORK) — Legendary ABC News journalist and political commentator Cokie Roberts has “two legacies,” said her husband of more than 50 years.

“The public Cokie and the private Cokie,” fellow journalist Steven Roberts said in an interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz. “The public Cokie was someone who was such a role model for women … but that was only half of her legacy.”

“The other half … [was her belief that] everybody can be a good person. Everybody can learn something about those private acts of generosity and charity and friendship,” he continued. “She lived the gospel every day, and some might say that’s the most important legacy she leaves.”

Cokie Roberts was a fixture on national television and radio for more than 40 years. She won countless awards, including three Emmys, throughout her decades-long career. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting. She also wrote five best-selling books focusing on the role of women in American history.

“I had so many people say to me, ‘I went to journalism because of Cokie,'” Steven Roberts said. “Countless young women saw her on TV, heard her on radio, and said, ‘I can be her, I could be that strong. I could be that smart. I don’t want have to hide who I am. I can be myself. I could be a strong independent woman.'”

His book, “Cokie: A Life Well Lived,” available Tuesday, is a tribute to his beloved wife after losing her to breast cancer in 2019. It documents their 53-year marriage, her public achievements as well as private life, which he feels was even more inspirational.

Cokie and Steven Roberts met very young while in college. He was 19 and at Harvard. She was 18 and attending Wellesley.

“We were at a student political meeting. I had known her sister. She had known my twin brother,” he recalled. “Our dorms back in Boston are only 12 and a half miles apart.”

Cokie was the daughter of political scions. Her parents, Hale and Lindy Boggs, both served in Congress, representing the city of New Orleans for a total of almost 50 years.

“The speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, was a frequent dinner guest during her childhood in the 1950s (in the home I still live in), and President and Mrs. Johnson came to our wedding in 1966 (in the garden of that home),” writes Steven Roberts.

He joked that he fell in love with his future mother-in-law first and “eventually got to Cokie.”

She was a staunch Catholic, and he was Jewish. Roberts said it took him three years to propose. He was 23 and she was 22 at the time.

“My mother often said that the first Passover Seder she ever attended was at her Catholic daughter-in-law’s … and there was a joke in the family. She was the best Jew in the family,” he said.

After they got married, Steven Roberts said the couple moved four times over the next 11 years for his job as a New York Times correspondent, and yet, “everywhere we went, [Cokie] worked somehow.” She started her career as a radio foreign correspondent for CBS in the 1970s.

“When we lived in Greece … there was a coup in Cyprus. I flew off to Cyprus, but then … the Greek government fell and after seven years of military rule, it was the biggest story in the world that week,” he said. “[Cokie] started covering it for CBS… I come back to find I’m married to a veteran foreign correspondent.”

Cokie Robert then joined NPR as a full-time staff journalist, covering Capitol Hill and reporting on the Panama Canal Treaty. She was only 34 years old. In 1987, she was brought in for a onetime trial for ABC News’ “This Week’s” roundtable. It was the number one Sunday morning show, but it featured three white men — Sam Donaldson, George Will and David Brinkley — and there was pressure on ABC to make the cast more diverse.

Her one-time trial became a weekly appearance and she ultimately earned her chair at the table. Roberts co-anchored ABC’s “This Week” with Donaldson from 1996 to 2002. She also served as polictical commentator, chief congressional analyst and a commentator for “This Week” during her three decades at ABC.

Her husband believes that the real core of her appeal was to other women, who thought, “wait, somebody who thinks like me, somebody talks like me, somebody who sees the world the way I did.”

“And that was really the base of her success of ABC,” Roberts said.

He explains that in those days women thought they had to choose between a professional career and having a personal life. Cokie Roberts, with two children, six grandchildren and a long marriage, still managed to have the career she did.

Steven Roberts said she would tell women all the time as she helped them in their navigate the pitfalls and obstacles.

“She said, ‘you can do this. It is not possible to have everything all the time, but you can have it most of the time,’” he said.

Cokie Roberts was also, according to her husband, “very tough on men who she felt were dissembling or mistreating women.”

When President George W. Bush nominated former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, for Secretary of Defense, Sam Donaldson brought up rumors of “womanizing” on the show. Tower turned to Roberts and demanded a definition of the term “womanizing.” She quickly retorted in one of the most memorable moments on television, “I think most women know it when they see it Senator.”

Steven Roberts noted that the reaction was “phenomenal,” particularly among women.

Cokie Roberts was also open about her long battle with breast cancer. She was first diagnosed in 2002, but long before then, she had become an advocate for breast cancer research when two of her friends, in their 50s, died of breast cancer in the same week.

“When she was diagnosed herself she knew all about it, and it was a devastating blow,” Steven Roberts said. “But she got a lot of good treatment and she lived for 14 years within remission.”

In “Cokie,” Steven Roberts wrote of his simple goal in honoring his wife.

“To tell stories, some will make you cheer or laugh or cry,” he wrote. “And some, I hope, will inspire you to be more like Cokie, to be a good person, to lead a good life.”

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(NEW YORK) — Stargazers in parts of the United States may be lucky enough to see the northern lights Saturday, thanks to a strong geomagnetic storm.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm watch for Saturday and Sunday, following a “significant” solar flare on the sun two days ago that released a coronal mass ejection.

The coronal mass ejection — a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s corona — is expected to reach Earth Saturday evening, with effects continuing into Sunday, NOAA said.

What that means for people on Earth is the chance to see the spectacular light display across the northern United States, in states as far south as Illinois — if clouds and light pollution don’t get in the way.

The strength of the storm “has the potential to drive the aurora further away from its normal polar residence and if other factors come together, the aurora might be seen over the far Northeast, to the upper Midwest, and over the state of Washington,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said.

The aurora may be visible late Saturday afternoon and into early Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

The peak is predicted around 5 p.m. ET, according to planetary space scientist James O’Donoghue.

“You’ll want to look north, near to the horizon,” O’Donoghue tweeted Saturday. “Also, befriend your local weather reporter and ask for clear skies.”

“Good luck aurora hunters!” he added.

The storm is rated G3, on NOAA’s five-level geomagnetic storm scale. “Impacts to our technology from a G3 storm are generally nominal,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said.

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(NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.) — Three people are dead and a fourth was hospitalized after an Amtrak train collided with a car at a railroad crossing in South Carolina early Saturday.

A North Charleston police officer reported the accident shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time, according to the North Charleston Fire Department.

Responding officers and firefighters found a “vehicle off the roadway with heavy damage” and four people “in the area of the damaged vehicle,” the fire department said in a statement.

Three people were pronounced dead at the scene and a fourth was treated by firefighters before being transported to a local hospital, authorities said. The fire department did not have an update on the person’s condition Saturday afternoon.

All four are believed to have been in the car on the railroad crossing when the collision occurred, and the train was able to make a controlled emergency stop after the crash, authorities said.

There were no injuries reported aboard the train, which was carrying 500 passengers, the fire department said.

The North Charleston Police Department and railroad operator CSX are investigating the cause of the accident.

Amtrak did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

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(LOS ANGELES) — There was a “troubling delay” in acting on multiple reports of possible drugging and sexual assault at a University of Southern California fraternity, the school’s president acknowledged in a letter to students amid an investigation into growing allegations against fraternities on the Los Angeles campus.

Last week, USC informed students that it suspended the Sigma Nu fraternity after an alleged sexual assault and “possible drug-facilitated sexual assaults” at its house. The move came nearly a month after several students confidentially reported to the university’s counseling service that they “may have experienced drugging and possible sexual assault in connection with a fraternity party,” President Carol Folt detailed in a letter posted Friday.

The students disclosed the information to the school’s Relationship and Sexual Assault Violence Prevention Services (RSVP) program between Sept. 25 and Sept. 30, Folt said. On Sept. 30, RSVP decided to elevate the information to several university departments, including public safety.

A separate incident of an alleged sexual assault by a member of the fraternity was also reported to the school’s Department of Public Safety on Oct. 16.

The school’s Clery Office, which tracks and discloses campus crime, received information on both sets of events on Oct. 20, at which point the Sigma Nu fraternity was suspended and students notified.

“We now know that there was a troubling delay in acting on this information, and specifically in evaluating it for notification to the community,” Folt wrote in her letter.

“We are still investigating what occurred next, but there was clearly uncertainty regarding how to assess and process the information, and it was not immediately escalated to the Clery Office or others,” she added.

Since first alerting the school community to the alleged incidents at Sigma Nu, USC has received additional reports of sexual assault and possible drugging at other fraternity houses this fall and in previous years, Folt said.

All incidents disclosed to the school since Sept. 25 have been reported to the Los Angeles Police Department, which said last week it was investigating possible drug-facilitated sexual assaults.

Activities at all USC fraternities have been suspended indefinitely, and USC will permanently ban or delist fraternities “if warranted,” Folt said.

In the wake of multiple campus alerts about alleged assaults at Sigma Nu, USC students have held protests demanding action from the university. Angry notes now also plaster the Sigma Nu fraternity house with messages like “do better” and “enough is enough.”

Folt became president of USC in 2019, after the previous president stepped down amid reports the school ignored allegations of widespread sexual misconduct by former campus gynecologist George Tyndall.

“As president, I came to USC with the promise to confront what is wrong and lead the effort to fix what is broken,” she wrote in her letter. “As we learn more, there will be some things we can do quickly and others that will take more time. This is too important to not get right.”

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(DENVER) — While some areas of the country are cautiously celebrating falling COVID-19 cases, hoping the declines might signal the return to a long-awaited sense of normalcy, some states continue to struggle as Americans prepare for winter.

Health officials in Colorado are growing increasingly concerned as the rate of COVID-19 infections grows to levels not seen in more than 10 months.

There is “a clear increase in cases statewide,” state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said in a COVID-19 briefing on Thursday.

In the last month alone, the state’s daily case average has nearly doubled — increasing by 91.5% since late September, according to federal data, and state data shows that Colorado’s average positivity rate has risen from just under 7% last week, to nearly 8.5% this week.

“Colorado moving in the wrong direction is a clear signal that we are not yet out of this pandemic, especially in under-vaccinated states. Colorado has yet to reach 70% with a first dose and if you layer in colder temperatures and relaxed masking, history is likely to repeat itself,” said John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

While southern states in particular are seeing significant declines in their rates of infection, several states with colder weather, like Colorado, are beginning to experience an uptick in cases, as people begin to increasingly head indoors.

“Coronaviruses tend to thrive in winter months and colder weather,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said in a White House COVID-19 briefing last week. “Right now is not the time, as cases are coming down, to become complacent because we do know colder weather is ahead of us.”

Five states — Alaska, Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire and New Mexico — have all seen a percent increase in hospital admissions of about 15% or more in the last two weeks.

“We are continuing to move very much in the wrong direction,” Scott Bookman, Colorado’s COVID-19 chief, said at a briefing on Wednesday.

According to state officials, the highest coronavirus case rate is among the 5- to 17-year-old age group.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations have also been increasing in the state, a trend that is particularly worrying health officials.

Approximately 90% of the state’s surgical and intensive care unit beds are currently in use, according to state officials. There are currently nearly 1,300 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 — the highest number of patients receiving care since December, and on average, federal data shows that nearly 200 residents are being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 each day.

“With the increase in percent of positivity and the concern of increase in cases in the coming weeks, we are all very concerned at this point about what we are seeing in our hospitals,” said Bookman.

And as more patients stream into emergency rooms in need of care, the average number of available beds is rapidly declining.

Thirty percent of hospitals anticipate an ICU bed shortage in the next week. State health officials have told ABC News that hospitals in El Paso County have had days when they’ve had to turn away transfer requests.

The majority of those COVID-19 positive patients — 77% — are unvaccinated individuals.

To date, 61% of the total population in Colorado has been fully vaccinated, leaving a significant number of residents still unvaccinated. People who have not been fully vaccinated are 6.1 times more likely to test positive with the virus and 11.3 times more likely to die from it, compared with people who are vaccinated, according to the CDC.

The notable divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated is evident in counties across the state.

In Crowley County, home to just over 6,000 residents, less than 49% of the eligible population has been vaccinated with at least one shot, according to state data. High transmission across the county remains rampant. In El Paso County, which currently has one of the state’s highest number of hospital admissions rate, approximately 65% of the county’s population over 12 have been fully vaccinated.

In total, 15 Colorado counties are significantly lagging, partially vaccinating 50% or less of their eligible population.

Comparatively, 11 counties have vaccinated at least 80% of their total population with at least one shot. San Miguel County, with a population of over 8,100, has 74% of its population fully vaccinated, and its infection rate has remained steadily low, despite increasing figures across the rest of the state.

If the situation in Colorado does not improve in the coming days, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Thursday he is prepared to take certain steps to address the uptick, including bringing in federal medical surge teams to help local hospitals in need of extra support, halting elective surgeries, expanding the use of monoclonal antibody treatment and possibly reactivating crisis standards of care, which determine how to most efficiently use medical resources, such as ventilators or ICU beds.

“A new surge once again places a challenging burden on our already tired health care professionals while also deferring important hospital procedures. This should really send a message to those still on the fence to do their part,” said Brownstein. “Remaining unvaccinated populations still represent opportunities for this virus to spread. This surge in Colorado should serve as an important warning to other states as we head into the winter months.”

ABC News’ Jeff Cook contributed to this report.

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(ARLINGTON, Va.) — Numerous police departments in Northern Virginia say the public can expect to see expanded police presence at shopping malls, public centers and gatherings over the Halloween weekend in response to a potential threat.

The potential threat to shopping malls emanated from intelligence possibly linked to ISIS, according to multiple law enforcement and intelligence sources. The credibility of the information is still being assessed, sources said.

An FBI spokesperson said in a statement, “We have no comment. However, we would remind you the FBI takes all potential threats to public safety seriously and we take all appropriate steps to determine the credibility of any information we receive.”

The Arlington County Police Department issued a statement calling it a “potential public safety threat.”

“The Arlington County Police Department (ACPD) is aware of information circulating regarding a non-specific, unconfirmed threat to shopping centers,” it said in the statement. “There is no specific or identified threat to our region. As always, the public is encouraged to remain attentive as you go about your normal routine, particularly in areas where large crowds of people typically gather such as shopping centers, restaurant districts, religious services, and public transportation hubs to name a few.”

Chief Kevin Davis of the Fairfax County Police Department said at a press conference Friday the the intelligence concerns “potential public safety impacts to malls and shopping centers across the region.”

“We’re taking it seriously,” Davis said. “We’re simply being proactive.”

“We’re acting with an abundance of caution in the best interest of those who reside here,” he said.

The chief did not provide details on what the threat was, but urged the public to be vigilant.

Davis called this a “regional matter” with information from collaborative sharing.

“It’s information we’re acting on by establishing a greater presence where people gather,” Davis explained. “We’re taking the appropriate responsible actions to ensure that the community knows that we take all information about their safety seriously.”

Other departments, such as the Alexandria, Virginia, Police Department, Loudon County Sheriff’s Office and Prince William County Sheriff’s Office, offered similar warnings.

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