State and local officials are pausing or reversing plans to reopen public life as the coronavirus pandemic surges in parts of the country that previously seemed to be trending in the right direction.
Carlos Giménez, the Republican mayor of Florida’s Miami-Dade County, the state’s largest, announced on Monday that he would close restaurants, gyms and other facilities. Last week, he shuttered entertainment venues including casinos, cinemas and strip clubs and instituted a curfew ― as Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) closed bars, theaters and gyms, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) shut down bars and indoor dining in most of his state. The governors of Mississippi, New York, Delaware, New Mexico, Nevada, Maine, New Jersey and Washington have recently postponed plans to lift limits on normal life.
The pattern shows how fragile a respite from the virus can be. And it highlights the toll of mixed messages from the federal government ― and from President Donald Trump himself ― over how to handle the pandemic, down to basic measures like requirements to wear masks in public. Some Republicans who once resisted mask mandates, like Ducey and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have reversed course as their states’ hospitals have filled up. But after months of a culture war over enforcing mask-wearing and taking other steps to contain the virus, the turn toward restrictions and re-closures could be coming too late |
