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Local officials in states with surging coronavirus cases issued dire warnings Sunday about the spread of infections, blaming outbreaks in their communities on early reopenings and saying the virus was rapidly outpacing containment efforts.
“We don’t have room to experiment, we don’t have room for incrementalism when we’re seeing these kinds of numbers,” said Judge Lina Hidalgo (D), the top elected official in Harris County, Tex., which encompasses the sprawling Houston metro area. “Nor should we wait for all the hospital beds to fill and all these people to die before we take drastic action.”
Here are some significant developments:
- New coronavirus cases in Florida on Sunday exceeded 10,000 in a day for the third time in the past week, after the state posted a record high of 11,458 the previous day. The new infections pushed the state’s total caseload past 200,000, a mark passed by just two other states, New York and California.
- Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said it was “too early to tell” whether the Republican National Convention could be held safely in Jacksonville, Fla., next month. “We’ll have to see how this unfolds in Florida and elsewhere around the country,” he told CNN.
- Some California cities defied requests to clamp down on public gatherings that could spread the virus. Lancaster ignored a ban on fireworks from Los Angeles County health officials, and several municipalities in the San Diego area kept their beach parking lots open, despite the state urging them to close.
- Public health experts continued to push back on what they say are misleading claims that the surge in cases was the result of expanded testing capacity alone. “When the virus is under control, testing doesn’t uncover more cases. It’s a tool for keeping the epidemic at bay,” said former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
Frustration about the pandemic response has mounted among local leaders, who say they have had to grapple with conflicting orders and frequently changing guidelines from governors and the White House as they try to curb sharply rising infections.
After Texas reported another single-day record for new coronavirus cases over the weekend, Austin Mayor Steve Adler (D) told CNN’s “State of the Union” that there won’t be enough medical personnel to keep up with the spike in cases if the rate of increase continues unabated in his city.
“If we don’t change this trajectory, then I am within two weeks of having our hospitals overrun,” he said, adding that intensive care units in the city could be overflowing within 10 days. He said he was not sure that Texas needed a statewide shelter-in-place order but that he wanted the authority to impose one locally.
Hidalgo echoed Alder’s concerns in an interview with ABC News’s “This Week,” saying hospitals in Harris County were entering surge capacity.
She said she had been stripped of authority to issue stay-at-home orders, as she did in the early weeks of the outbreak, after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) decided to move forward with an aggressive reopening plan in the spring. All she could do now was issue “recommendations,” which were nowhere near as effective, she said.
“As long as we’re doing as little as possible and hoping for the best, we’re always going to be chasing this thing, we’re always going to be behind, and the virus will always outrun us,” Hidalgo said. “And so what we need right now is to do what works, which is a stay-home order.”
In Florida, which also reported a record caseload Saturday, Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez (R) said it was “clear that the growth is exponential at this point.”
“There’s no doubt that when we reopened, people started socializing as if the virus didn’t exist,” he told ABC News. “It’s extremely worrisome.”
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego (D) attributed soaring case numbers in Arizona to the state’s decision to resume business as usual before the virus was under control. She noted that young people who ignored health precautions had probably led the explosion in cases.
Gallego said federal officials had dismissed her requests to conduct community-based testing in the area after people reported waiting in line for six hours at some testing sites. “We were told they’re moving away from that,” she said, “which feels like they are declaring victory while we’re still in crisis mode.”
The warnings came after President Trump said Saturday that his administration had made “a lot of progress” slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States.
Speaking at an Independence Day event on the White House lawn, Trump said the country had “learned how to put out the flame” of the coronavirus.
“Our strategy is moving along well,” he said, thanking front-line pandemic workers for their work. “It goes out in one area and rears back its ugly face in another area. But we have learned a lot.”
He continued to assert that testing had driven up new case numbers — a claim contradicted by rising positivity rates and widely disputed by epidemiologists — and said the country was making progress on developing therapeutics and a vaccine.
Nationwide, the rolling seven-day average for new cases reached a new high of 48,361 on Saturday, up 11,740 from a week ago, according to tracking by The Washington Post. Eighteen states also reported new average highs.
Officials continued to plead with the public to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid large gatherings to stop the virus from spreading deeper into communities. Several more major U.S. cities, including Cincinnati and Cleveland, passed ordinances requiring people to wear face coverings while in public.
Elise Viebeck contributed to this report.
