Houston (United States) (AFP)

Confronted like many of its neighbors to an outbreak of coronavirus cases, Texas suspended on Thursday its ongoing deconfinement process, a change of attitude towards the virus in a state so far cantor of reopening.

In the great southern state of the United States, the bar of 5,000 new cases was crossed two days in a row (5,996 cases reported on Thursday, a new record) and hospitalizations more than doubled in two weeks, rising from 2,008 on 11 June at 4.389 this Thursday.

The positivity rate is now 11.76%. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a press conference in May, "If the positivity rate exceeds 10%, this is one of the red flags we will pay attention to."

Texas is one of the first American states to reopen its economy. As of May 1, restaurants, shopping centers and stores were able to reopen at reduced capacity. Bars, hairdressers and beauty salons followed suit in the following weeks.

"As a state, the last thing we want to do is go back and close businesses," said Greg Abbott on Thursday, but "this temporary hiatus will help our state contain the spread."

The Republican governor of Texas has urged residents in recent days to follow social distancing guidelines and to wear masks, which he has never made mandatory.

To guarantee "a sufficient number of beds available to treat patients with Covid-19", the governor of Texas also paused from Friday the unnecessary surgical operations in big cities like Houston, Austin and San Antonio .

Harvard public health professor Barry Bloom, interviewed by AFP Thursday during a briefing with journalists, said Texas may "have to shut down some of the things it had reopened", "an unpleasant choice for a government from a political point of view. "

The Texas Medical Center (TMC), a medical institution in Houston, announced on its website that the beds in its intensive care units had reached 100% capacity, a first since March. Twenty-eight percent of these beds are occupied by patients with Covid-19.

- "Just as dangerous" -

Between 5 and 8% of the American population has been contaminated by the coronavirus causing Covid-19, American health authorities estimated on Thursday. More than nine out of ten Americans are therefore likely to be infected and the pandemic is far from over in the country, especially in the southern and western states.

Texas, Arizona, Florida and California have taken over in the Northeast of the United States and in turn post sharply rising figures, pushing local authorities to change their attitude towards the virus.

At 8:00 p.m. GMT, the country had more than 37,000 new cases diagnosed and 692 additional deaths for Thursday, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).

Nevada Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak announced on Wednesday that wearing a mask is mandatory in all public spaces, including Las Vegas casinos that reopened in early June.

Tourist and Republican Florida also recorded a new record of new infections on Wednesday (5,508). Since Tuesday, wearing a mask has been made compulsory in the big seaside city of Miami and a dozen cities in the region.

Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti said he was "worried" about the situation on TV on Thursday, adding that 40% of the new cases concerned people aged 18 to 40.

"This virus is just as dangerous today as it was when it first appeared," he said. "It attacks our exhaustion, it attacks when we get lazy, when we are divided."

The total number of infections diagnosed on American soil is around 2.4 million.

© 2020 AFP