Cops in beach clash as lockdown revolt grows
PROTESTERS waving flags and placards were confronted by mounted police at a popular US beach as they called for an end to the lockdown.
Thousands of demonstrators assembled on the boardwalk at Huntington Beach, California, to voice their anger and demand a return to normality.
Their fury was directed at the state’s Governor Gary Newsom, who closed the sands after crowds defied orders to stay home and flocked to sunbathe and swim last weekend.
More protests against Newsom were held in Los Angeles, where workers gathered at City Hall to say the continuing shutdown of businesses was costing jobs.
One banner read “Go furlough yourself” while others made clear people preferred the risk of catching the virus to the certainty of poverty.
California was one of at least 10 American states which have seen mass demos since Friday.
Unrest centred in major cities including Columbus and Raleigh, the state capitals of Ohio and North Carolina, Chicago and New York.
Cops on horseback were also deployed in the Big Apple – but this time as a backdrop to friendlier scenes in which hospital staff came out in their scrubs to take bows from applauding members of the public.
The show of gratitude came as a court dismissed a legal bid by a New York nursing body to force authorities to step up the provision of safety kit for staff.
The nationwide protests have set President Donald Trump at odds with governors in several states.
Mr Trump has been accused of stirring up the anti-lockdown demos by urging Republican supporters to “liberate” states run by Democrats.
He said some measures have been “too tough” and has posted tweets that appear to be inflammatory.
In one message he said: “These are great people. They’ve got cabin fever. They want to get back. Their life was taken away from them.”
Organisers of the Liberate Minnesota protest said: “President Trump has been very clear that we must get America back to work very quickly or the ‘cure’ to this terrible disease may be the worse option!”
The number of deaths in the US has topped 65,000, with 1.1 million cases reported, a staggering change from just two months ago when only two fatalities had been noted.
According to statistics the number of dead from Covid-19 per million population in the US is now 439.
However Britain, Italy, Spain, Belgium and France all have higher death tolls per one million population than America.
India has decreed that all public and private sector employees use a government-backed Bluetooth tracing app and maintain social distancing in offices.
Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus yesterday, its highest daily rise, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in Moscow.
In Australia, passengers on a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Brisbane were told to seek health advice after one person aboard tested positive for coronavirus.