Crowds pack Arizona river as U.S. posts record COVID cases for three days running
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Reuters
Crowds pack Arizona river as U.S. posts record COVID cases for three days running
Crowds pack Arizona river as U.S. posts record COVID cases for three days running
People go tubing on Salt River in Arizona
By Lisa Shumaker
(Reuters) - Hot and sunny weather in Arizona led to crowds tubing on at least one river this weekend as that state and a dozen others face the worst surge in coronavirus cases since the pandemic started.
Temperatures were expected to rise to over 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) on Sunday along the Salt River east of Phoenix. On Saturday, dozens of people climbed into inflatable inner tubes with coolers and took to the water to escape the heat. Very few wore masks.
Texas shuttered tubing and rafting business on Friday and some beaches in Florida are closing again ahead of next weekend's Fourth of July holiday to try to curb the rising outbreak in those states.
For a third consecutive day on Saturday, the number of confirmed U.S. cases rose by more than 40,000, one of the largest surges in the world. In Arizona, cases have risen by 267% so far in June and jumped by a record 3,857 cases on Sunday, the eighth record-breaking increase this month.
Even in states where cases have been declining for weeks, outbreaks are happening. One bar in East Lansing, Michigan has been linked to more than 76 cases, according to the Ingham County Health Department. That number is likely to rise, officials cautioned.
Just a day after he sounded a note of optimism about the U.S. response to the pandemic and said the country was in "a much better place," Vice President Mike Pence canceled events to campaign for Republican President Donald Trump's re-election in Florida and Arizona due to the outbreak, campaign officials said on Saturday.
In an interview with CBS, Pence said he was confident that there were enough health care supplies and capacity to deal with the spike in cases.
He also defended Trump's refusal to directly ask Americans to wear masks or to wear one in public himself, even as Texas Governor Greg Abbott and others say the widespread use of masks will be critical to be able to reopen the economy.
"We believe people should wear masks wherever social distancing is not possible, wherever it's indicated by either state or local authorities," Pence told CBS.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, has criticized the administration's response to the pandemic that has killed more than 125,000 Americans. She told ABC News on Sunday that mandating the use of masks across the country was long overdue.
Global coronavirus cases exceeded 10 million on Sunday according to a Reuters tally, marking a major milestone in the spread of the respiratory disease that has so far killed almost half a million people in seven months.
(GRAPHIC: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. - https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html)
(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by Lisa Shumakmer; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Brain dead morons.
EVERY SINGLE ONE.
Stupid people. Goes back to having a piss poor leader in the white house
Natural Selection
So many candidates for the Darwin awards this year. I'm voting for Trump to win.
Sadly their idiocy doesn't just affect them.
I am from Arizona and I love my state, but this makes me feel ashamed! Thankfully this is not representative of the entire state. .
Don't feel too bad we had nitwits blocking the freeway in Colorado yesterday.
Can't see if they have masks on Dean. Do they?
It amazes me that people refuse to take it seriously.
We had a record high number of new cases here.
I had to go out yesterday and had to stop and get gas and a quick trip to a store.
Traffic was unbelievable like it was a holiday weekend and out of everyone, I only saw one person wearing a mask.
Don't get into my tiny town much, but when I do, tend to be the only person on my side of the counter wearing a mask. The store clerks are required to wear them but most don't wear it correctly by leaving their noses uncovered. Kind of defeats the purpose.
Keep bottles of Purell in my truck and house and use screen cleaner wipes on everything that I bring home. Now in my mid 60s and don't tempt fate like I did in my misspent youth.
This is one of the reasons that 1 in four deaths from CV worldwide occurs here.