Miami shuts eateries again as virus deaths top 130,000

Florida’s greater Miami area became the latest US coronavirus hot spot to roll back its reopening, ordering restaurant dining closed as Covid-19 cases surged nationwide by the tens of thousands and the US death toll topped 130,000.

Restaurants also were targeted for a weekend crackdown on coronavirus enforcement in California, where hospitalisations 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 hospitalised at any one moment with the virus, up more than 500 admissions from the day before to nearly 8,700.

The US 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 the country.

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 virus 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 favourite 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,” he said.

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.