Virus cases rise in U.S. states amid new world restrictions

MIAMI » Arizona, Texas and Florida together reported about 25,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as restrictions aimed at combating the spread of the pandemic took hold in the United States and around the world in an unsettling sign reminiscent of the dark days of April.

The face-covering mandates, lockdowns, health checks and quarantine orders underscored the reality that the number of infections is continuing to tick upward in parts of the world and that a return to normalcy may be farther off than many leaders had envisioned just weeks ago.

Alabama will begin requiring face masks after the state reported a pandemic-high of 40 deaths in a single day. In Texas, which again set a record Wednesday for confirmed new cases with nearly 10,800, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has increasingly emphasized face coverings as the state’s way out of avoiding another lockdown, which he has not ruled out.

Among the sternest measures were in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo added to a list totaling 22 states whose visitors will be required to quarantine for 14 days if they visit the tri-state region. Out-of-state travelers arriving in New York airports from those states face a $2,000 fine and a mandatory quarantine order if they fail to fill out a tracing form.

The broad reach of the virus has brought scrutiny to governors’ decisions. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a first-term Republican governor who has backed one of the country’s most aggressive reopening plans, became the first U.S. governor to announce that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He plans to quarantine at home.

Stitt, who has resisted any statewide mandate on masks and rarely wears one himself, attended President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa last month, which health experts have said likely contributed to a surge in coronavirus cases there, though Stitt said he’s confident he didn’t contract the virus at the gathering.

“As far as where he became infected, it’s really unknown,” Oklahoma Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said.

Florida broke the 300,000 barrier on confirmed cases Wednesday, reporting 10,181 new ones as its daily average death rate continues to rise. Major cities in Florida have imposed mask rules, but Gov. Ron DeSantis has declined to issue a state-wide order, arguing those are best decided on and enforced locally.

Still, on Tuesday the governor wore a mask while speaking publicly for the first time — at a round-table news conference with Miami-Dade County mayors.

“We have broken single-day records several times this week and there’s nothing about it that says we’re turning the corner, or seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t see that in the numbers,” said Dr. Nicholas Namias, chief of trauma and surgical critical care at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

He said diminishing bed capacity is creating problems at the Miami medical center. “We’re getting to the point where it’s going to be full. We have gridlock and we won’t be able to take patients and they’ll just be stacked in the ERs,” Namias said.

In Washington, a divided approach to the pandemic response spilled into public view in extraordinary fashion, with trade adviser Peter Navarro panning Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. Fauci called the criticism “nonsense” and “a bit bizarre.” Trump stepped in to referee, saying “we’re all on the same team.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Naliber Tavares winces as she receives a COVID-19 test at the Whittier Street Health Center’s mobile test site, July 15, in Boston’s Dorchester section. The health center has administered free COVID-19tests to over 5,000people. The tests, administered since April 13, have been a popular service in Boston’s low-income communities that have experienced high rates of infection.