The United States headed for the weekend of July 4 with many canceled fireworks displays and parades, closed beaches and bars, and health officials warned that this will be a crucial test of American self-control that could determine the trajectory of the growing outbreak of coronavirus. .
With confirmed cases in 40 states, governors have ordered the use of masks in public, and families were urged to celebrate their independence at home. Even then, they were told to keep their outdoor meals small.
Health experts agree that this will be a crucial time to determine if the nation falls into a deeper disaster. The fear is that a weekend of pool parties, picnics, and crowded parades will fill the wave.
The Independence Day celebration of July 4 last year at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC drew large crowds and officials are trying to discourage the meeting due to the pandemic. [File: Tom Brenner/Reuters]
“We are not going to arrest people for having meetings, but we are certainly going to discourage them,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, director of public health for Seattle and King County.
‘Do not share’
Those who decide that they should meet with a small group of family members should be careful, he said: “Don’t share utensils, don’t share objects, don’t pass them from one place to another, because you are transmitting that virus around as well.”
The warnings sounded after a Memorial Day weekend in May that saw many people leave orders to stay home to go to the beach, restaurants and family gatherings. Since then, confirmed infections per day in the US have soared to a record high, more than double.
The United States set another record on Friday with 52,300 recently reported cases, according to the count maintained by Johns Hopkins University. Arizona, California, Florida and Texas have been especially affected.
Regardless, there will still be fireworks and community events scattered across the country, with many taking social distancing into account. In Ohio, the Upper Arlington July 4 parade will take a much longer route through its neighborhoods so residents can look without crowding the streets.
“We call it the front porch parade,” said organizer Sam Porter. “We can’t just not do something.”
The fireworks will be launched from four locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so people can see and enjoy themselves from home instead of meeting in one place.
Former US Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln are sculpted at the Mount Rushmore National Monument in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, USA, where President Trump will begin the end. week on Friday [File: NPS/Handout via Reuters]
President Donald Trump would travel to South Dakota on Friday for a Mount Rushmore fireworks show before returning to the nation’s capital for military overflights on Saturday and a mile-long 1.6-kilometer fireworks show in The National Mall that your administration promises will be the largest in recent memory. Up to 300,000 face masks will be given away, but will not be required.
The big party will continue despite objections from the Mayor of Washington.
“Ask yourself, do you have to be there? Ask yourself, can you anticipate or know who will be around you? If you go to the center, do you know if you will be able to distance yourself socially?” Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
Beaches that had been open for the traditional start of summer over Memorial Day weekend will be banned in many places this time, including southern Florida, southern California, and the Texas gulf coast.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Americans who go to the beach to cover their faces, but not in the water.
With professional pyrotechnic displays canceled, authorities prepare for forest fires and injuries caused by people shooting fireworks at home. Fireworks sales have been booming in what some vendors say may reflect a desire for a little excitement among people locked up for so long.
The Delaware governor ordered bars to be closed in some coastal cities before the holidays, saying that people were becoming complacent about the masks and social distancing. The coastal town of Wildwood, Jersey, canceled its fireworks, and the resort town of Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie, Ohio, did the same after health officials linked a small number of coronavirus cases. to bars on the island.
People on Ocean Drive in Miami, Florida. The United States has recorded a quarter of the world’s more than 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus. [Chandan Khanna/AFP]
Florida’s most populous county, Miami-Dade, instituted a night curfew, and beaches and businesses began to close again as the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state continued to rise.
County Mayor Carlos Giménez said the curfew from 10 pm to 6 am begins Friday and will be in effect indefinitely. The order closes casinos, strip clubs, movie theaters, and other entertainment venues a month after they were allowed to reopen.
“This curfew is aimed at preventing people from venturing out and hanging out with friends in groups, which has shown that it is spreading the virus rapidly,” Giménez said in a statement.
Florida reported 9,488 new confirmed cases and 67 deaths on Friday, a day after setting a new daily record of more than 10,000 cases on Thursday.
Statewide, about 20 percent of ICU beds are currently available, although some hospitals have additional capacity that can be converted to ICU units if needed.
The state health department’s hospitalization count was highest Friday with 341 new admissions in Florida, one of the largest daily jumps since the pandemic began. Giménez cited the shortage of staff at local hospitals when announcing the curfew.
“I met with our medical experts this afternoon to discuss what other steps we can take to stop the spread of the virus infection and ensure that our hospitals have sufficient capacity,” he said Thursday. “Right now, we have a lot of beds, but some hospitals are experiencing staffing shortages.”
Last week, officials in Miami-Dade and other counties, including the Florida Keys, announced that the beaches would be closed for the long weekend.
The latest county statistics show more than 1,300 patients with COVID-19 in Miami hospitals. Of these, 281 are in intensive care beds, occupying about 63 percent of ICU beds that would otherwise be available.
State health authorities in Arizona said that the capacity of hospital intensive care units is at its highest, reaching 91 percent.
The number of people hospitalized Thursday due to a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 was 3,013, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. It is the first time that it reaches 3,000.
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