This was published 3 years ago
Parks crowded as some US states exit lockdown despite deaths mounting
By Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Allen
Sunny days and warm weather are proving to be as challenging to manage as restaurants, hair salons and other businesses as about half of US states partially reopen after coronavirus lockdowns.
On Saturday, thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington to view a US military flyover to honour healthcare workers and others battling the pandemic.
New Yorkers in Brooklyn's Windsor neighbourhood on Saturday.Credit: AP
In New York City, warm weather saw sunbathers flock to green spaces in Manhattan, including crowded conditions at Christopher Street Pier in Greenwich Village.
Last week, California ordered beaches in Orange County to close after crowds defied public health guidelines to throng the popular shoreline. That prompted protests by demonstrators who accused the state's Democratic governor of overreach.
Dr Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House coronavirus taskforce, told Fox News Sunday that massing on beaches was not safe unless people kept at least six-feet apart.
She also weighed in against allowing businesses such as beauty salons and spas to reopen.
"We've made it clear that that is not a good phase one activity," she said, as the number of US cases topped 1.1 million and the death toll rose to more than 67,000 on Sunday.
She told host Chris Wallace that there could still be worse to come, with the projected death toll still in the region of between 100,000 and 240,000 – "and that's with full mitigation and us learning from each other of how to social distance," she added.
Protesters gathering, as they did last week in Michigan and other parts of the country to demonstrate against stay-at-home restrictions, pose a huge risk, Birx said.
"It's devastatingly worrisome to me, personally, because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather who has a co-morbid condition and they have ... a very unfortunate outcome, they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives," she said. "So we need to protect each other at the same time we're voicing our discontent."
On April 19, US President Trump – who has encouraged the protests – declined to give the protesters similar guidance on social distancing.
"I don't have any advice," he said. "People feel that way. You're allowed to protest. I mean, they feel that way. I watched a protest, and they were all six-feet apart. I mean, it was a very orderly group of people."
Widely circulated images have shown not all protesteres to be socially-distanced.
Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said on Sunday the country was seeing a "mixed bag" of results from coronavirus mitigation efforts.
People gather to watch a fly over of the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds military planes in Washington DC on Saturday.Credit: AP
He said there were about 20 states that were seeing a rising number of new cases, including Illinois, Texas, Maryland, Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
"We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And we're just not seeing that," he said on CBS' Face the Nation.
"If we don't snuff this out more, you have this slow burn of infection [and] it can ignite at any time."
Even in the face of rising cases, some Americans are eager to return to socialising and large gatherings – including sports.
Pike Place Market in Seattle on Saturday.Credit: AP
The National Football League said it will announce its schedule for the upcoming season this week, including its season opening game on September 10 and the Super Bowl, which is scheduled to be played in Tampa, Florida on February 7.
"We are planning on playing the 2020 NFL season as scheduled," said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, adding that plans would be adjusted for government regulations.
On the other side of the spectrum is Boston mayor Marty Walsh in Massachusetts, which has not begun reopening and is seeing coronavirus cases still climbing. Massachusetts has also issued a statewide order telling people to wear masks in public.
He said the rallies against coronavirus mitigation efforts were causing confusion and making his job harder.
"I don't understand it. That makes messaging really confusing. ... It's the wrong message, because we're still very much in the beginning days of coronavirus. Even if you're a state that is seeing numbers go down," Walsh said.
"If we're not smart about the way we do things, those numbers could turn around and go right back up again."
As Texas becomes one of the leading states pushing for its businesses to reopen, Dallas mayor Eric Johnson said people appeared to be obeying the new rules.
"People have not been rushing back into these restaurants and they have not been rushing back into the areas of the economy that the Governor reopened on Friday," he told CNN. "What we are seeing is people sort of putting their toe back in."
Reuters
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