Cases rise in U.S. states amid new restrictions
Arizona, Texas and Florida together reported about 25,000 new coronavirus cases Wednesday as new restrictions aimed at combating the spread of the pandemic took hold in the United States and around the world.
The face-covering requirements, lockdowns, health checks and quarantine lists underscore the reality that the number of infections is continuing to tick upward in parts of the world and make clear that a return to normalcy may be farther off than many leaders had envisioned weeks ago.
Alabama will begin requiring face masks after the state reported a pandemichigh 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 are in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo added to a list now totaling 22 states whose visitors will be required to quarantine for 14 days if they visit the tri-state region. Outof-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.
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 statewide 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 roundtable news conference with Miami-Dade County mayors.
Dr. Nicholas Namias, chief of trauma and surgical critical care at Jackson Memorial Hospital, said diminishing bed capacity is creating problems at the Miami medical center. He described the issue as being the topic of daily strategy meetings to figure out which beds the hospital can convert to COVID-19 care.
“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.
Other countries, meanwhile, imposed lockdowns and implemented new health checks at their borders.
Starting Wednesday, all travelers arriving in Greece from a land border with Bulgaria were required to carry negative coronavirus test results issued in the previous 72 hours. The new rules, which follow an increase in tourism-related COVID-19 cases, triggered an immediate drop in arrivals compared to recent days.
After the border restrictions Greece imposed Wednesday, traffic at the crossing fell by about half, authorities said, but waiting times were still lengthy and a line of cars and trucks was over 500 yards long as the number of tests carried out by medical teams at the border were increased.
Gergana Chaprazova, 51, from Plovdiv in southern Bulgaria, planned to visit the Greek seaside town of Kavala with her husband and complained that she was being tested again.
“I have to wait for a test, but I (already) have a test from Bulgaria. I don’t understand why I must have a test here,” she told The Associated Press.
The developments come as more than than 13 million coronavirus cases were confirmed worldwide, with over 578,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are thought to be far higher due to a number of reasons including limited testing.