Beaches closed in Florida and California where restrictions are announced to be back: the United States prepared on Wednesday for a long weekend of national holiday upset by the rebound in the coronavirus epidemic that the authorities admit they do not have total control over .
The July 4 festivities, marked by family reunions or large gatherings to attend the fireworks, came at a time of a surge in the Covid-19 pandemic in several regions of the country, forcing some states to do so. a break in the deconfinement process.
Faced with the outbreak of new cases, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, must announce Wednesday the return of certain restrictions and the strengthening of sanitary measures.
“For us, the framework is as follows: if you do not stay at home and if you do not wear a mask in public, we must apply the law and we will do it,” he warned on Tuesday.
He said he was particularly worried about the big family celebrations where the guests “let their guard down” by dropping the masks.
In the Los Angeles area, local authorities have closed beaches for the weekend, and San Diego County has instituted a curfew for bars and restaurants.
– “Worse and worse” –
Some beaches in Florida, where the tourist season is in full swing, have also been closed in an attempt to curb this new peak of contamination, and municipalities have stepped up health protection measures. In Miami-Dade County, volunteers go door-to-door to distribute masks, gloves and hydro-alcoholic gel by repeating to residents the importance of barrier gestures.
The city of Miami Beach has made it mandatory to wear the mask in public, or face a $ 50 fine. In Miami, the authorities decided Tuesday to close for 30 days shops that do not comply with sanitary measures.
Same observation in New York, where the mayor of the city Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that the restaurants could not reopen their rooms, as planned in the municipal strategy of deconfinement.
“We are all concerned that eating inside a restaurant has become a problem,” he said at a media briefing.
“Even last week, I had hope, but the information that comes from across the country is getting worse and worse,” said the Democratic mayor.
He said he would work with state authorities to determine a safe reopening date.
New York State, which was for a long time the epicenter of the American epidemic and where it has been declining for several weeks, has also put in place strict measures to protect itself by ordering quarantine for visitors from 16 states, almost half the American population.
– Spectacles surprise –
Attention is also focused on large gatherings to attend National Day celebrations.
On July 3, President Donald Trump plans to attend, with his wife Melania Trump, fireworks at Mount Rushmore, a tourist attraction in South Dakota, where the heads of former presidents were cut from granite.
In Florida, most of the Independence Day events have been canceled. For those who remain organized, the authorities have asked spectators to attend from their car.
In New York, the department store chain Macy’s announced the organization “surprise” of several pyrotechnic shows of five minutes throughout the week, to avoid crowds of spectators.
“Each event will be short and finished before the locals can gather at its source,” Macy’s said in a statement.
With an additional 1,199 deaths from the new coronavirus in 24 hours, the daily toll in the United States started to rise again on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of daily deaths had remained below 1,000 since June 10.
More than 127,000 people died from Covid-19 on American soil, the most mourning country in the world in absolute terms.
The country also has for several days more than 40,000 new daily infections of Covid-19.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent member of the presidential coronavirus crisis unit, admitted on Tuesday that health officials had “no total control” over the pandemic.
“I would not be surprised if we reach 100,000 (new cases, note) per day if we do not reverse the trend,” he added to the senators.
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