Texas, Florida halt reopening as coronavirus cases jump

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday put a halt to any further reopening of businesses in their states as cases of the novel coronavirus surged.

Abbott also issued an executive order suspending elective surgery in four counties hit by an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations. The counties are home to major cities: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and the state capital, Austin. More than 4,300 people with the virus are hospitalized across the state, more than double the number at the beginning of June.

Abbott, a Republican, has said repeatedly that rolling back the state's reopening would be a last resort, and he repeated it on Thursday.

"The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses," he said in a statement. "This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business."

He said that businesses already reopened can continue to operate and urged Texans to help contain the spread of the virus by washing their hands regularly, wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

In Florida, DeSantis, who has repeatedly asserted that he didn't plan to stop the state's reopening, said, "We never anticipated necessarily doing anything different in terms of the next phase at this point anyways. We are where we are."

Florida reported 5,508 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the total to more than 114,000. Orange County, home to Orlando, is averaging 353 new cases a day, compared with 73 two weeks ago.

DeSantis, a Republican, has pressed older people to stay home as much as possible. He has also pleaded with young people to be responsible, saying they account for the rising infection rate.

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, the first to order a statewide lockdown, saw his state report a record increase of more than 7,000 cases in a day on Tuesday, far surpassing the record hit a day earlier when more than 5,000 new cases were reported.

Newsom said Wednesday that counties that don't enforce health orders to control the outbreak could see state funds withheld.

"California has a responsibility and obligation legally and otherwise to enforce those laws," said Newsom, adding that he may utilize "the power of the purse" to assure public safety. "That will be an exception, and we hope we never have to trigger that," he added.

On Thursday, Newsom declared a budget emergency, citing the state's $54.3 billion budget deficit, thus clearing the way for more funds to fight the pandemic, according to a statement from his office.

The move ensures the availability of funds for medical supplies and equipment and other costs to deal with the state's recent spike in cases.

At the Texas Medical Center, a cluster of hospital facilities in Houston that together operate the world's biggest medical complex, the number of intensive-care cases surged to 1,298 in a system with a normal operating capacity of 1,330. The complex could be out of intensive-care capacity as soon as Thursday and exhaust its backup capacity in another 10 days, it said.

Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told CNN that the big metro areas of Texas seem to be rising very quickly, and some of the models for the virus are on the verge of being "apocalyptic".

Models show that Houston could have a fourfold increase in the number of daily cases by July 4, said Hotez, who is also working on a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

The US accounts for more than 2.4 million of the more than 9.6 million cases worldwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 122,000 Americans have died. Experts say that differences in reporting standards and testing capabilities might be masking the full extent of the pandemic.

On Thursday, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the number of Americans infected with the coronavirus is most likely 10 times higher than has been recorded.

"We probably recognized about 10 percent of the outbreak," said Dr Robert Redfield on a call with reporters. He added that between 5 percent and 8 percent of Americans have been infected to date.

Since Wednesday, several states have mandated the use of face coverings in public, indoors and outdoors. They include Nevada, Washington and North Carolina, the first state in the South to do so.

North Carolina was supposed to move into phase three of its reopening plan Friday, but Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said Wednesday that the move is now on hold and the state will stay in the current phase for another three weeks.

Nevada's mask order by Governor Steve Sisolak, also a Democrat, came two days after the state saw a single-day record for cases, most of them in Clark County, home to Las Vegas.

Caesars Entertainment Corp said earlier Wednesday that masks would be required at all of its properties nationwide, while rival MGM Resorts International said in a statement that it will require masks for all guests and visitors inside public spaces at its US resorts starting Friday.

Florida's DeSantis has refused to issue a statewide order to wear face coverings. But several areas have issued their own, particularly in South Florida.

Mayors from nearly a dozen cities in Miami-Dade County announced this week that masks will be mandatory in all public spaces, including outdoors when social distancing isn't possible. Some mask orders have been met with legal challenges.