Americans enjoy the weekend outside as toll nears 100,000
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND President Donald Trump goes golfing to Virginia, ditches his face mask
US President Donald Trump kicked off the start of the American summer season on Saturday with his first golf outing in two months, underlining his push for a return to normal life in the United States.
As the United States marked Memorial Day weekend — the country’s unofficial start of summer — Trump took a 35-minute drive from the White House to the Trump National club in Sterling, Virginia, in his first visit to a golf property since March 8.
Neither Trump nor his three golf partners wore masks, though he rode alone in his golf cart, a CNN journalist reported.
Americans excited about what for many was their first big break from coronavirus shutdowns flocked to beaches and outdoor areas on Saturday, snarling roadways and forcing some closures on the Memorial Day weekend that signals the start of the US summer.
In Destin, Florida, The Back Porch, a surfside restaurant on Henderson Beach, was full. The restaurant was operating at 50% seating capacity to ensure that chairs and umbrellas could be placed 6 feet apart, and newcomers had to wait for places to become free before they could enter, said hostess Julianna Preede, 18.
“There’s a lot of people here right now — it’s a holiday weekend,” Preede said.
In Arizona, holiday travellers flooded Interstate-17, causing a 15-mile backup on the roadway used for access to some of the desert’s most beautiful canyons, the Arizona Department of Transportation said.
Some recreation areas, including Saguaro Lake, became so crowded that authorities had to shut them down.
While the Memorial Day holiday that honours the US military dead is on Monday, the weekend leading up to it marks the unofficial start of summer, with Americans traditionally flocking to beaches, gathering at backyard barbecues and unfurling picnic blankets in parks.
The number of deaths in New York state caused by Covid-19 coronavirus in the last 24 hours was 84, the lowest one-day total since late March, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday. “The news is good news,” Cuomo said in his daily televised briefing. Hospitalisations, intubations and new infections were all in decline, he added. “In my head, I was always looking to get under 100,” Cuomo said, speaking from the governor’s mansion in Albany.
“It doesn’t do good for any of those 84 families that are feeling the pain,” he added. “But for me it’s just a sign we are making real progress.”
The toll is the lowest since March 24. At the pandemic’s peak in New York in early April, state officials were reporting up to 800 deaths per day, and daily tolls repeatedly surpassed 1,000 when probable cases were included.
Parts of the state that saw fewer virus cases have already begun to ease lockdown restrictions, but they have yet to be lifted in New York City, the former virus epicentre in the US.
The city’s beaches remained closed for the long Memorial Day weekend.