Infectious disease expert Dr. Aileen Marty said, “People are not practicing social physical distancing.”
With coronavirus cases on the rise in 23 states, compared to a week ago and more states moving to the further stages of reopening, experts are sounding the alarm.
“They’re not wearing their masks,” Dr. Marty said. “They’re not paying attention and they’re not believing that there’s a problem.”
New confirmed cases nationwide topped 30,000 for two consecutive days over the weekend with 10 states reporting their highest seven-day average of new infections, including Florida, Texas and California, where hospitalizations recently reached their highest level since the pandemic began.
Hospitals also under pressure in states like Washington, Florida and Arizona.
Phoenix, Arizona Mayor Kate Gallego said, “Our hospital beds have 17 percent left in capacity. We’re in a crisis situation.”
Florida passed 100,000 cases, joining six other states to reach that grim milestone, leading some localities to pump the breaks.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said, “We’re not opening large venues where you can have any sort of large congregation of people, whether a sporting event, whether it’s a rally.”
Many of those testing positive are in their 20s and 30s.
While the White House suggests the jump in cases is due to more testing, experts say the high percentage of positive tests in Florida, where the rate has passed 10%, and in Arizona, where it is around 20%, show the increase is real. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally, agrees.
Governor DeSantis said, “Even with testing, increasing or being flat, the number of people testing positive is accelerating faster than that and so you know that’s evidence that there’s transmission within those communities.”
NFL players are now being advised to stop training together and Major League Baseball is shutting down some training facilities in Florida and Arizona.
In the face of rising cases, the CDC is expected to issue updated recommendations on masks and one White House official said the administration is preparing for a new wave of infections in the fall by stockpiling supplies, even as another says that wave won’t come.
White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said, “We’re on it, we know how to deal with this stuff now, we’ve come a long way since last winter and there is no second wave coming. It’s just hot spots.”
Moving ahead with reopenings Monday are New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Georgia, where the Six Flags Amusement Park opened to all guests.
New York, once the epicenter of the crisis in America, is taking the next step in what has been a slow, cautious approach.
N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “We had a less than 1% transmission rate yesterday. We went from the highest transmission rate in the United States to the lowest transmission rate. If we see any uptick in those numbers, we will respond.”
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