It’s party time as US death toll nears 100,000
AMERICANS flocked outdoors over the holiday weekend to swim at beaches, party in pools and sunbathe in parks despite their country’s coronavirus death toll hurtling towards 100,000.
They thronged in numbers for Memorial Day weekend – normally a time when cemeteries across the nation fill with flags and ceremonies to remember those who died in US wars.
But social media videos captured anything but a sombre mood as people crowded on to beaches in Florida and other Gulf Coast states, forcing authorities to break up large gatherings.
Social distancing rules were blown out of the water at Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks resort. Jodi Akins, who visited with friends for a pool party, told CNN: ‘When we walked up my first words were, “Oh my gosh”! Social distancing was non-existent.’ Another holidaymaker tweeted: ‘People are partying like they never partied in ages, lol.’
In Houston, city mayor Sylvester Turner ordered firefighters to enforce regulations. He said: ‘There are too many people who are coming together to go to clubs, bars and swimming pool parties, with no social distancing and no masks.
‘It’s clear people are crowding in, looks like to maximum capacity, almost on top of one another.’
But Memorial Day this year has also become a time to mourn the 97,000plus people who have died due to the pandemic. To illustrate the scale of the loss, the New York Times filled its entire front page with the names and details of 1,000 victims.
National editor Marc Lacey said: ‘We were trying to humanise these numbers which keep growing and have reached such unfathomable heights that they’re really hard to grasp any more.’