Several US states compete to re-impose blockades amid a new surge in coronavirus infections that have brought the total to more than 2.5 million, apparently prompted by the push to reopen the economy.
When Donald Trump, for the second day in a row, visited the Trump National Golf Course in Sterling, Virginia, the number of cases in the US reached at least 2,534,981, part of a global total of more than 10 million. Worldwide, more than 500,000 people have died.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, one of the worst places to go on strike was the rural counties of California, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Florida, which saw more than double confirmed cases in one week, from 19 from June to last Friday. .
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In Texas, Governor Gregg Abbot ordered bars to be closed and reimposed restaurant limits on indoor seating from 75 percent to 50 percent capacity.
“If I could go back and redo something, it probably would have been curbing the reopening of bars,” the governor told ABC News affiliate KIVA.com, amid scenes of crowded establishments in downtown cities like Houston.
In Florida, Mayor Carlos Giménez in Miami-Dade County announced Friday night that he would close the beaches over the weekend of July 4. He said cracking down on recreational activities was wise given the increasing number of infections among young adults.
Florida reported more than 9,500 new cases on Saturday, up from nearly 9,000 on Friday.
On Friday, when the daily number of nationally confirmed infections rose to a record high of 45,300 in one day, eclipsing the previous high of 40,000 set the day before, epidemiologist Anthony Fauci warned that the nation was facing yet another potential crisis.
“People are infecting other people, and ultimately you will infect someone who is vulnerable,” he said, in the first briefing by the White House coronavirus task force for several weeks.
Vice President Mike Pence was planning to hold campaign rallies in Florida and Arizona next week, but has now canceled them, and an aide told the Reuters news agency that he had done so as a precaution.
Arizona, which will be among the top battlefield states in November, has also seen a new spike in infections.
When asked on CBS News if the administration had been wrong to allow individual states to respond in an apparently casual way, Pence defended his actions.
“We work closely with governors to make sure they have what they need when they need it, tailored to the unique circumstances of their states,” he said.
“And when you look at the extraordinary progress we made in New York and Connecticut and New Jersey and New Orleans and Michigan and, at first, in states like Washington state where we … crushed the curve, we slowed down the spread, and we did it at an early point in this pandemic where we were scaling the evidence. “
Meanwhile, health secretary Alex Azar warned “the window is closing” about the country’s opportunity to act. “This is a very serious situation,” Azar told NBC News. “We have to act, and people as individuals have to act responsibly. We need social distance, we need to use our facial covers ”.
Others said the Trump administration simply was not moving fast enough.
Tom Friedman, who previously headed the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), told Fox News that movements to reopen the nation were happening too quickly and that they would be “counterproductive.”
“If you open up when cases keep increasing like many states did, it’s like leaning over to a left hook, you’re going to be hit hard, and that’s what’s happening,” he said.
“When we see, Arizona, Texas, Florida, South Carolina are on a rapid rebound and it is sad to say that this will continue to worsen.”
Trump, who was photographed walking into his golf club wearing a white polo shirt and a red MAGA baseball cap with the number 45, is the 45th president of the nation, had not yet commented on the situation as he was said to be its 272nd. Visit one of his golf properties from the beginning of his presidency.
He was joined by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina,
His state is among those that have seen an increase in infections, reporting at least 1,500 on Saturday, a new daily record. On Friday, Governor Henry McMaster declared a new state of emergency there.
Additional agency reports
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