States pause on reopening

More than a dozen states have hit a pause on their reopening plans as the United States sees a surge in coronavirus cases across much of the country.

With July 4 celebrations approaching, officials are trying to avoid repeating scenes from Memorial Day. In Texas and parts of California, bars were directed to close down, while in Florida, beaches in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach were ordered off-limits to the public during the upcoming holiday weekend and on-premises alcohol consumption was suspended in bars statewide.

There have been concerns that reopenings started too soon and without basic measures in place, including those laid out in the gating criteria that came directly from the White House. Adhering to those guidelines, at the very least, might have helped stem the tide of cases.

Instead, we are at a time when states are breaking records for newly confirmed cases in a day and the US reached a record high for single-day confirmed cases at 40,173 on Friday.

More than 500,000 people worldwide have been killed by Covid-19. A quarter of them are Americans. US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said starkly the “window is closing" for us to get a handle on this virus.