COVID-19: Florida and Texas tighten restrictions amid surge in new cases

With a surge in new COVID-19 cases in the United States, authorities in Florida and Texas tightened restrictions on business again. As per reports, Florida on June 27 recorded 9,585 new infections in the span of 24 hours. With a record high for a second day, the authorities also informed that the state reported 24 additional deaths from the deadly virus. 

While several US leaders, including President Donald Trump, have been downplaying the coronavirus pandemic, the leading government adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci reportedly said that the country has a ‘serious problem’. While speaking to the White House reporters, Fauci said that the current rises were probably due to the regions opening a little bit too early. Florida alone has over 132,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and the deadly virus has even claimed more than 3,300 lives in the region. 

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Amid an increase in confirmed cases, the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reportedly imposed new restrictions and ordered bars in the state to stop serving alcohol on their premises. Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, on the other hand, told the bars to close and limited restaurants’ indoor seating capacity to 50 per cent. In Texan town of Galena Park, the mayor reportedly also imposed an overnight curfew on June 27. The mayor also warned that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed. 

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Hospitals expected to run out of space by July 6

Meanwhile, several hospitals in states, including Texas, Arizona and Florida, are running out of intensive care unit (ICU) beds for virus-infected patients. According to an international media outlet, the Texas Medical Center system in Houston was expected to fill its ICU bed earlier this week, however, the authorities created a COVID ‘war room’ and can handle a 66 per cent surge in additional ICU patients. With the rising number of cases, health experts have calculated that the ICU beds and the COVID ‘war room’ are all going to run out of space by July 6 if the current increase in Texas continues.

Several states in the US have been recording a weekly increase in new cases of coronavirus. While some new cases are believed to be linked to better testing, others are probably due to the eased public health restrictions that have allowed people to gather in groups. The United States overall has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, with over 2,510,000 positive cases and 125,539 deaths. Even with an increasing number of cases, the state continues to ease lockdown measures.

(Image: AP) 

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