DECRYPTION
Case records, increase in hospitalizations ... The South of the United States, from Florida to California, has become the hot spot of the epidemic of coronavirus of the first world power, causing the return of restrictions. As a sign of this upsurge, the number of new daily infections approached record levels on Wednesday, with nearly 36,000 cases in 24 hours. An increase that has lasted for several days and which is all the more worrying that in May, the new daily contaminations had stabilized around 20,000.
Nearly half of the 50 American states have experienced an increase in the number of cases in the past two weeks, and some, such as Texas, Florida and California, are now posting daily records in the number of cases recorded.
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An endless first epidemic wave
Unlike Europe, the United States has never fully descended from its "peak": the first wave, started with a little delay compared to Europe does not end, and the country is always the most affected both in number of deaths and cases, with 121,979 deaths for 2,381,369 cases. By comparison, the European Union, after having experienced a peak close to that of the United States, today registers around 4,000 new cases per day. According to the director of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), Robert Redfield, between 5 and 8% of the American population has been infected.
An end of the first wave which could be even worse according to doctor Julien Cavanagh, neurologist and chief of interns of the Stade University of New York, who anticipates at the microphone of Europe 1 a "saturation of the health system in a certain number of rural places ". He also points out that these regions have "high rates of obesity, hypertension and diabetes, making Covid-19 even more serious".
The South of the country, a new national epicenter
The overall American figure actually hides two trends. In the cities struck first, from March (and undetected from February), mainly in the Northeast and in New York, the coronavirus is under control and the infection curve resembles that observed in Europe. But another part of the country took over in June: the South and the West, in states like Arizona, Florida, Texas, but also California, which had however imposed confinement early in the pandemic.
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The return of certain restrictions
Texas, which had quickly started its deconfinement at the beginning of May, thus registered 5,551 new infections on Wednesday, and decided to put its deconfinement on hold. "This temporary pause will help our state contain the spread until we can enter the new phase of reopening for businesses," said Governor Greg Abbott in a statement released on Thursday.
For its part, California also broke a new record for the third day in a row on Wednesday, with more than 7,100 new cases recorded out of nearly 200,000 in total. As for Florida, it deplored 5,508 cases on Wednesday, a record also. Since Tuesday, wearing a mask has been made compulsory in the big seaside city of Miami and a dozen cities in the region. It was already the case since last week in Orlando, Tampa, or the famous islands of the Keys.
But the southern states are not the only ones to have taken measures, since New York, New Jersey as well as Connecticut decreed quarantine Wednesday for the Americans coming from the zones where the pandemic accelerates.
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Barrier measures not sufficiently respected
As for knowing the origin of such an increase, part of the answer is certainly to find on the side of the random respect of the barrier measures by the citizens of the zones where the virus progresses. Failing to be mandatory in most of these southern jurisdictions, wearing a mask in public and physical distancing are like vague instructions subject to everyone's good will. Concretely, the uncovered face is the norm in the street.
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A fallout from Trump's policy?
A phenomenon all the more interesting to note that these states are mainly governed by Republicans, like Donald Trump, who minimized the pandemic and encouraged rapid deconfinement. On June 5, when the pandemic killed 1,000 of his fellow citizens daily, the American president assured that his country had "largely overcome" the crisis and called the governors of the states where the confinement was still in force to lift it.
>> READ - Coronavirus: Trump says US has "largely overcome" the pandemic
Contaminants younger than in March
But this increase could also be explained by the behavior of those least at risk. According to data from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), analyzed by researchers from the Harvard School of Global Public Health, people under 65 represent 82% of positive cases as of May 31, against 63% on March 1. This generational evolution in contagions has yet to be confirmed, but it would be consistent with the desire of the least vulnerable Americans to return to a "normal" life.
Epidemiologists also indicate monitoring the effect of major anti-racist protests, started after the death of George Floyd, on the pandemic.