On Monday, more US states and companies withdrew their plans to reopen their economies, citing surges in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, as the government’s top infectious disease specialist blamed Americans for ignoring the guidelines for public health.
Increases in confirmed cases and hospitalizations have been most pronounced in Sun Belt states, such as Florida, Texas, and Arizona, which defied advice from health experts to wait longer before easing restrictions.
“That’s a recipe for disaster,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN in an interview broadcast Monday.
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]
“Now, we are looking at the consequences of the spread of the community, which is even more difficult to contain than the spread in a physical place known as a prison, a nursing home, or a meat packing place,” Fauci said in the interview, which was recorded on Friday.
The New York Times reported Monday that 43 percent of deaths in the US from COVID-19 were related to nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The document cited its own monitoring database.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said Monday that meals indoors will no longer resume Thursday in the state as planned and will be postponed indefinitely.
California authorities ordered the closing of bars in Los Angeles and six other counties on Sunday. Texas and Florida ordered the closure of all their bars on Friday.
The beaches in Florida’s Broward County and Palm Beach County won’t open July 3-5, authorities said Sunday, a blow to residents hoping to celebrate United States Independence Day on Saturday. Miami-Dade County had already announced the closure of beaches for the holiday weekend.
AMC, the largest cinema chain in the United States, said Monday that it was delaying the opening of its cinemas to July 30 from July 15.
Pence urges Americans to wear masks
Arizona and Georgia were among the states that reported new record cases this week. Last week, a total of 15 US states reported new records, according to a Reuters count.
In June, 22 US states reported record increases in new cases, often multiple times, including Alaska, Arkansas, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, and Utah.
US Vice President Mike Pence arrives for a campaign rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma [McNamee/Getty Images/AFP]
Disguises have become a political problem, with some civil rights activists and supporters of United States President Donald Trump arguing that such mandates are unconstitutional.
The city of Jacksonville, Florida, which hosted part of the Republican nomination convention in August, said on Twitter that it would require masks for all public places beginning Monday.
Sharp change
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday that Trump “has no problem with the masks and does whatever his local jurisdiction requires.”
United States Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday pressured Americans to adopt face masks during a trip to Texas and used one, a radical change for the administration. Other Republican politicians in the hardest hit states are also asking for masks.
The United States accounts for about a quarter of all reported coronavirus cases and related deaths worldwide, exceeding 10 million and 500,000, respectively, over the weekend.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed Trump on Monday for the new surge in cases, saying the president’s focus on reopening the economy had failed. Cuomo himself has been criticized for his handling of the virus in New York, which has recorded more than twice as many deaths as any other state in the United States.
The governor admitted in an interview on NBC News Sunday that he had taken “political heat” over his decision to put recovering patients in nursing homes, but denied that it put more older people at risk.
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