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 Restaurants also were targeted for a weekend crackdown on
coronavirus enforcement in California, where hospitalizations for
COVID-19 have jumped 50% over the past two weeks and the state
capitol building in Sacramento was temporarily closed for deep
cleaning.
For an eighth straight day, Texas registered an all-time high in the
number of people hospitalized at any one moment with the highly
contagious respiratory illness, up more than 500 admissions from the
day before to nearly 8,700.
The U.S. military said it would deploy a special 50-member medical
team, including emergency room and critical-care nurses and
respiratory specialists, to a hard-hit area in and around San
Antonio.
California, Texas and Florida are all among two dozen states
reporting high infection rates as a percentage of diagnostic tests
conducted over the past week, an alarming sign of a virus still
spreading largely unchecked throughout much of the country.
"It's a serious situation that we have to address immediately," Dr.
Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist and
member of the White House coronavirus task force, said during a live
internet interview on Monday.
The Miami-Dade County emergency restaurant closure was ordered on
Monday by Mayor Carlos Gimenez, the top official in a metropolitan
area that has reported some 48,000 COVID-19 infections to date among
its 2.8 million residents.
An updated statement late on Monday said the forthcoming emergency
order will allow outdoor dining to continue, wherever possible, with
tables of no more than four patrons, and music at a level that does
not require shouting to prevent the emission of potentially
dangerous airborne droplets.
The move reimposing rules to permit carry-out and delivery service
only, just weeks after eateries began welcoming customers back to
their favorite tables, booths and patios, left struggling
restaurateurs even more worried about the survival of their
businesses.
"We're burned out emotionally, we're burned out financially, and
we're burned out from the trauma of seeing everything that's
happening," said Karina Iglesias, a partner at the popular Spanish
restaurants Niu Kitchen and Arson in downtown Miami.
Michael Beltran, chef-partner at Ariete Hospitality Group, which
owns a handful of other popular Miami restaurants, was struggling
with having to tell most of his 80 employees - many of them just
rehired for reopening - that they would again be unemployed.
"From what they told me, I did the proper things (to reopen), and
now we're at this point," Beltran said.
Graphic - Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S.: https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html
RISING CASES AND 'POSITIVITY'
COVID-19 infections are on the rise in 39 states, according to a
Reuters analysis of cases over the past two weeks, with the country
as a whole averaging some 50,000 new cases nearly every 24 hours in
recent days. Sixteen states have posted record daily case counts so
far this month.
More states are also reporting a troubling increase in the
percentage of COVID-19 diagnostic tests that come back positive - a
key indicator of community spread that experts refer to as the rate
of "positivity."
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Two dozen states, mostly in the South and West, have averaged positivity rates
over the past week exceeding 5%, a level the World Health Organization considers
to be concerning, data collected by Reuters shows.
Several states were averaging double-digit rates and climbing, including Arizona
at 26%, Florida at 19% and Mississippi at 17%.
California's positivity rate has also risen over the past two weeks. But
Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday cited a 50% two-week spike in hospitalizations -
with 5,790 COVID-19 patients currently admitted - as an impetus for beefed-up
enforcement actions during the Fourth of July holiday.
Graphic - Where coronavirus cases are rising in the United States: https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/USA-TRENDS/dgkvlgkrkpb/index.html
ENFORCEMENT AND ROLLBACKS
He said state regulators visited nearly 6,000 bars and restaurants over the
weekend to ensure compliance with rules barring indoor seating or the reopening
of any establishment that serves alcohol without food.
The nationwide loss of life from COVID-19 surpassed 130,000 on Monday, and the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecast that the death toll
could reach 160,000 later this month.
The disquieting surge in new cases has prompted many local leaders to slow down
or roll back business reopenings in hopes of curbing infection rates that have
started to overwhelm hospitals in some areas.
"We can tamp down the spread if everyone follows the rules, wears masks and
stays at least six feet (2 m) apart from others," the Miami mayor said in a
statement announcing his emergency order, which also closed ballrooms, banquet
halls, fitness centers and short-term housing rentals.
Colleges and universities have likewise been forced to adjust reopening plans.
Harvard University said on Monday all undergraduate fall semester classes would
be taught online and only 40% of the undergraduate student body would be
permitted to live on campus.
Also on Monday, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, one of several politicians
reported under consideration by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe
Biden as a running mate for the Nov. 3 election, joined a growing list of
well-known U.S. public figures diagnosed with COVID-19.
In an MSNBC interview, Bottoms, 50, said she had not developed severe symptoms,
adding she and her family wear face coverings in public and are mindful about
social distancing and washing their hands.
"I'm still processing all of this. I'm shocked," she said.
(Reporting by Lisa Shumaker, Doina Chiacu, Peter Szekely, Maria Caspani,
Gabriella Borter, Zachary Fagenson, Sharon Bernstein, Caroline Humer, Idrees Ali
and Kanishka Singh; Writing by Gabriella Borter and Steve Gorman; Editing by
Howard Goller, Bill Berkrot, Peter Cooney and Michael Perry)
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