Miami rolls back restaurant dining As US COVID deaths top 130,000
MIAMI (Reuters) — Florida’s greater Miami area became the latest US coronavirus hot spot to roll back its reopening, ordering restaurant dining closed on Monday 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 hospitalizations for COVID-19 have jumped 50 percent 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 US military said it would deploy a special 50-member medical team, including emergency room and criticalcare 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.