US sees record Covid-19 cases in a day, officials regret reopening move | World News - Hindustan Times
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US sees record Covid-19 cases in a day, officials regret reopening move

Hindustan Times, Washington | ByYashwant Raj
Jun 27, 2020 11:12 PM IST

The states worst affected by the surge are reviving restrictions that they had rushed to lift earlier, against the advise to public health. Texas, for instance, which saw another day of more than 5,000 new infections, has shut down bars and restaurants and certain outdoor activities.

The United Sates set another single-day day record for new Covid-19 infections with 45,255 cases reported on Friday as public health officials blamed the new surge on states that opened too soon or without necessary precautions and younger people returning to public life.

Bartender Katie McGranahan pours beers at the Saint Arnold Brewing Company Friday, June 26, 2020, in Houston.(AP)
Bartender Katie McGranahan pours beers at the Saint Arnold Brewing Company Friday, June 26, 2020, in Houston.(AP)

Anthony Fauci, the top epidemiologist, has called the changed focus of the epidemic on to younger people a “paradigm shift”. They are “going to be asymptomatic, and people who are getting infected in a community setting, not an outbreak setting where you know who to identify, isolate and contact trace”, he said at the first briefing of the White House coronavirus task force in two months on Friday.

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The states worst affected by the surge are reviving restrictions that they had rushed to lift earlier, against the advise to public health. Texas, for instance, which saw another day of more than 5,000 new infections, has shut down bars and restaurants and certain outdoor activities.

State’s governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, sounded contrite in an interview to a local TV station:“If I could go back and redo anything, it probably would have been to slow down the opening of bars, now seeing the aftermath of how quickly the coronavirus spreads in the bar setting.”

Florida, another state in the eye of the new surge with a daily record of close to 9,000 news infections on Friday, has also brought back some restrictions. Bars are prohibited from serving alcohol now, its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has resisted calls to do more.

Different counties, however, are taking their own measures. Miami-Dade county has shut down beaches and public parks in view of the upcoming July 4 independence day weekend, and another county is mailing reusable masks to all its residents.

The states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, that were the hardest hit earlier, are continuing their reopening. Connecticut has become the first state to announce plans to resume in-school education in the fall.

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