Authorities across the country are urging protesters against the death of George Floyd to get COVID-19 tests after more than a week of street marches and close contact with each other.
“Get a test. Get a test,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says, adding that the state is opening 15 new testing sites and telling people not to take any chances.
“I would act as if you were exposed, and I would tell people you are interacting with, assume I am positive for the virus," Cuomo said.
Similar calls for testing have come from state and city leaders in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Seattle.
As many as 400,000 people are expected to return to their jobs in New York Monday as the country’s largest city begins its first phase of reopening. Many will be packing the subway for the first time in nearly three months.
Construction workers and those with jobs in factories, wholesale houses, and some retailers will be returning to work. Stores are offering curbside pickup only.
But the city’s thousands of restaurants will remain closed at least through the rest of the month.
While New York City officials appear confident enough to start to reopen, the Florida Department of Health announced another 1,180 new coronavirus cases Sunday -- saying this is the fifth straight day the number of new cases exceeds 1,000.
Visitors arrive at Universal Studios theme park on the first day of its reopening after the shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic, in Orlando, Florida, June 5, 2020.
Experts in Florida say people are becoming careless about social distancing since statewide lockdowns have eased. They also note that the numbers started rising when the George Floyd protests began.
Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott Sunday accused China of trying to sabotage U.S. efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
Appearing on BBC television’s Andrew Marr Show, Scott declined to give any evidence for his claim.
“It came to our intelligence community. I’m on Armed Service (committee), so clearly there's things I can't discuss that I get provided information. But there's evidence that they've been trying to either sabotage or slow it down,” Scott responded.
The senator said China “won’t cheer” if the United States or Britain develops a vaccine before anyone else.
No Chinese official has directly responded to Scott’s charge.
But Science and Technology Minister Wang Zhigang said Sunday Beijing wants to strengthen international cooperation in developing a vaccine.
The number of CIVID-19 cases worldwide moved closer to the 7 million mark, according to the count by Johns Hopkins University, with more than 401,000 deaths.
The United States is far ahead of any other country in both categories.