The Southern United States hit by an outbreak of cases

Since Tuesday, the mask-wearing has been made mandatory in Miami, and a dozen of cities in the region.

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June 24, 2020 14h10

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The Southern United States hit by an outbreak of cases

Leila Macor

Agence France-Presse

MIAMI — Records of cases, increase in hospitalizations, sick young people, the southern United States, from Florida to California, has become the hot spot of the epidemic of coronavirus in the United States, leading to the return of restrictions.

With nearly 330 million people, the United States have the worst record in the world in absolute value : more than 121 000 people dead and more than 2.3 million cases detected.

Very hard hit by the COVID-19 at the beginning of the epidemic in the United States, New York and New Jersey as well as Connecticut neighbor, decreed Wednesday a quarantine for people coming from the States where the pandemic is accelerating.

Nearly half of the 50 u.s. States have experienced an increase in the number of cases in the past two weeks, and some, like Texas and Florida, have daily records in the number of cases reported.

What drives their governors, republicans, allies of Donald Trump, to declare or encourage new measures.

Texas, which had quickly begun his déconfinement the beginning of may, recorded Tuesday, 5489 new infections, out of a total of more than 120 000 cases. This record since the beginning of the pandemic has pushed its governor, Greg Abbott, to call his fellow citizens to stay home.

The number of hospitalizations has doubled during the last month and the hospitals are afraid of being overwhelmed.

This rate of spread is “unacceptable”, has roared Greg Abbott this week, urging the Texans to wear a mask and adopt the gestures barriers. Additional measures could become necessary, he warned, while ensuring that a new closure of shops was not yet envisaged.

Kim Cherryhomes, owner of a clothing store in the seaside town of Galveston, East Texas, regrets that the governor has never made masks mandatory.

This “are lives that are at stake”, explains to the AFP that decided to “do its part” by imposing the wearing of the mask to its customers.

Epidemiologist Rebecca Fischer believes that the peak of infections is still far. Measures that limit the spread of the virus should “ideally” be in place “for as long as possible”, until that “spillover or epidemic are nearly extinct”, which was not the case in Texas, ” she explains to the AFP.

“Explosion” youth

In Florida, the images of swimmers returning on the wide beaches of Miami, closed for nearly three months due to the pandemic, had done the world tour with their re-opening on 10 June, marking the hope for a return to “normality”.

But Wednesday, the State tourism has also registered a new record of new infections (5508). He had spent Monday, the bar 100 000 detected cases of coronavirus.

Since Tuesday, the mask-wearing has been made mandatory in this great seaside city of Miami, and a dozen of cities in the region. This was already the case since last week to Orlando, Tampa, or the famous islands of the Keys.

Governor Ron DeSantis has complained about the “veritable explosion of new cases among young people”. And to add a serious caution in this high place of the party: the bars and restaurants not following the rules of distance are at risk of losing their licenses for sale of liquor.

The situation has even pushed this fierce supporter of Donald Trump to take the opposite view of the american president, declaring for the first time Saturday that the increase in the volume of screening could not be the only explanation for the peak of infections.

California also has set a new record for the second consecutive day Tuesday, with over 6600 new cases were reported, out of 178 000 in total.

The county of Los Angeles is among the most affected, and hospitalizations due to the COVID-19 are also increasing in some regions. The authorities of the Silicon Valley have warned that progress made against the coronavirus were retreating.

Arizona has also reached a new high on Tuesday, with 3591 new cases, out of a total of nearly 60 000.

More than eight beds in three intensive care unit were occupied on Monday (84 %). Since the containment was lifted on 15 may, the number of cases has been multiplied by four. And here, too, the affected persons are younger than at the start.

To the immunologist-in-chief of the White House, Anthony Fauci, “the next two weeks will be critical” to combat these flare-ups “of concern”. With Julia BENARROUS in Houston

Le Soleil