The U.S. headed into the Fourth of July weekend with many parades and fireworks displays canceled, beaches and bars closed, and health authorities warning that this will be a test of Americans' self-control that could determine the trajectory of the surging coronavirus outbreak.
With confirmed cases climbing in 40 states, governors and local officials have ordered the wearing of masks in public, and families were urged to celebrate their independence at home. Even then, they were told to keep their backyard cookouts small.
"This year is a huge bummer, to say the least," said Ashley Peters, who for 14 years has hosted 150 friends and relatives at a pool party at her home in Manteca, Calif., complete with a DJ, bounce house, water slide and shaved-ice stand. This time, the guest list is down to just a few people.
Pulling the plug on the bash, she said, was a "no-brainer" because so many of those she knows are front-line workers, including her husband, a fire captain. "I woke up and told my husband I wish it was just July 5," she said.
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Health experts agree this will be a pivotal moment in determining whether the nation slides into a deeper mess. The fear is that a weekend of crowded pool parties, picnics and parades will fuel the surge.
"We're not going to be arresting people for having gatherings, but we're certainly going to discourage it," said Dr. Jeff Duchin, public health director for Seattle and King County.
Those who decide they must gather with a small group of family members need to be careful, he said: "Don't share utensils, don't share objects, don't pass them back and forth, because you're passing that virus around as well."
The warnings were sounded after a Memorial Day weekend that saw many people emerge from stay-at-home orders to go to the beach, restaurants and family gatherings. Since then, confirmed infections per day in the U.S. have grown to an all-time high, more than doubling.
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FESTIVITIES REINED IN
The U.S. set another record Friday with 52,300 newly reported cases, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile, worldwide cases crossed 11 million.
The picture was bleak around much of the country. In Arizona, the number of people in the hospital with a suspected or confirmed case of covid-19 eclipsed 3,000 for the first time. Alabama reported more than 1,700 new confirmed cases, its highest single-day count yet. New York state, which had largely tamed the virus, recorded 918 new cases, the most in at least three weeks.
Despite it all, there will still be fireworks and community events scattered across the nation, with many taking social distancing into account. In Ohio, Upper Arlington's July Fourth parade will take a much longer route through its neighborhoods so residents can watch without crowding the streets.
"We're calling it the front porch parade," said organizer Sam Porter. "We can't just not do something."
Fireworks will be launched from four spots across Albuquerque, N.M., so people can ooh and aah from home instead of gathering in a single place.
Willie Nelson's annual Fourth of July Picnic will carry on at his Texas ranch outside Austin, but this year the concert portion will be virtual.
President Donald Trump was in South Dakota on Friday for a fireworks show at Mount Rushmore before returning to the nation's capital for military flyovers today and a mile-long pyrotechnics display on the National Mall that his administration promises will be the biggest in recent memory. Up to 300,000 masks will be given away but not required.
The big party will go on over objections from Washington's mayor.
"Ask yourself, do you need to be there? Ask yourself, can you anticipate or know who all is going to be around you? If you go downtown, do you know if you're going to be able to social distance?" Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
Beaches that had been open for the traditional start of summer over Memorial Day weekend will be off-limits in many places this weekend, including South Florida, Southern California and the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Americans who do go to the beach to wear face coverings, though not in the water.
WORRIES ABOUND
With most professional pyrotechnic displays canceled, authorities are bracing for wildfires and injuries caused by Americans shooting off fireworks at home. Sales of fireworks have been booming in what some sellers say may reflect a desire for a little excitement among people cooped up for so long.
Jamie Parrott, a pediatric neurologist in Columbia, S.C., said he intends to stay home with his grandchildren, setting off fireworks and eating hamburgers, because that's the safer course for older people like him.
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Delaware's governor ordered bars in some beach towns to close, saying people were getting complacent about masks and social distancing. The Lake Erie resort village of Put-in-Bay in Ohio canceled its fireworks after a small number of coronavirus cases were linked to bars on the island. The New Jersey resort town of Wildwood did the same.
Still, many people are expected to pack the beaches, boardwalk restaurants and amusement parks up and down the Jersey shore.
South Carolina's Myrtle Beach is one of the nation's worst hot spots for covid-19, and officials in several other states blame their outbreaks on vacationers returning from the resort city. On Thursday, the city passed a mask requirement.
"I hate the perception that people have right now, as any city would," said Mayor Brenda Bethune.
Dr. Don Williamson, head of the Alabama Hospital Association, said he is "really, really worried about the Fourth of July."
"I think that will likely determine the trend for Alabama for the rest of the summer," he said.
In Tennessee, Knox and Shelby counties Friday joined Nashville and Memphis in requiring people to wear masks in many public settings. The orders come as virus cases continue to surge in Tennessee. The state recorded 1,822 new cases Friday, breaking the one-day record of 1,806 set just Wednesday.
An additional 13 deaths were reported Friday, bringing the total number of covid-19 deaths in Tennessee to at least 633.
Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order Friday granting 89 counties the authority to issue local mask requirements if covid-19 cases spike. He said local governments expressed a need for greater flexibility.
The order said wearing a face covering is a "simple step that each Tennessean can take to slow the spread of the virus, which prevents having to take more drastic and disruptive measures for our economy and job market."
Places of worship are exempt from the Knoxville order, as are federal facilities, nursing homes, retirement homes and assisted-living facilities. People who are actively eating or drinking at restaurants and bars do not have to wear masks, nor do the deaf and hard of hearing and those who are communicating with them, people who need to remove a mask to receive medical treatment and people with conditions that prevent them from wearing masks.
CAUTIONS REPEATED
"We have perhaps one more chance to get this right," said Aileen Marty, an infectious-disease specialist at Florida International University whose argument for meticulous asymptomatic testing went unheeded in April when a sampling site opened at the Miami school. Three months later, she is renewing her appeal as cases soar in Miami-Dade County, the center of the outbreak in Florida, which Thursday reported 10,109 new infections.
This week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned that the country could soon record 100,000 cases per day.
"This weekend, the next week-and-a-half, perhaps the next two weeks are make-or-break," said Marty, a former Navy physician whose warnings were circulated in a letter this week to Miami-Dade commissioners. "If we don't massively change our behavior right now, to stop facilitating the transmission of the virus, then we are facing either another lockdown or a massive number of hospitalizations and deaths."
State and local leaders from Los Angeles to Miami Beach prepared for the holiday by closing businesses and imposing curfews.
In California, which took some of the earliest and most aggressive actions to contain the virus but saw cases explode after easing restrictions, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom shut down bars and suspended indoor dining in much of the state.
On Thursday, the mayor of Miami-Dade County took the extraordinary step of imposing a 10 p.m.-to 6-a.m. curfew.
Leaders who once ordered residents indoors reached instead for ultimatums, signaling that more painful measures were on the horizon. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, cautioned students and parents this week that their "actions will determine, frankly, whether we can open schools in the fall."
She joined governors of both parties, many of them reluctant to take more sweeping actions, in "urging" and "asking" residents to stay home and to practice social distancing.
In Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp embarked on a "wear a mask" tour of his state. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, encouraged Floridians to be "diligent."
ENGLAND OPENS FURTHER
Britain takes its biggest step yet out of lockdown today with the reopening in England of restaurants, pubs and hairdressers, along with cinemas and churches.
Britain is also opening up to travel, announcing Friday that it will scrap a requirement for people arriving from dozens of countries to spend 14 days in isolation. Starting July 10, quarantine will be lifted for arrivals from countries deemed "lower risk" for the coronavirus, including Australia, Japan, France, Spain, Germany and Italy.
For isolation-weary Britons and cash-starved businesses, relief at easing the three-month lockdown is mixed with trepidation. Britain has the highest covid-19 toll in Europe, with more than 44,000 confirmed deaths, and scientists say the coronavirus is still on the loose.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week that the virus was "still circling like a shark in the water."
"Without doubt, lockdown has saved many hundreds of thousands of lives," Johnson said at a news conference Friday. "But it has also had a devastating impact on our way of life and our economy."
One city in England will not be joining in the reopening. Leicester, population 300,000, was sent back into lockdown this week amid a spike in infections. Nonessential shops have been closed and pubs and restaurants won't be reopening today.
They are also staying shut north of the border in Scotland. Nor has that country agreed to the plan to end quarantine for travelers, which for now applies only to England.
The list of 73 countries and territories exempted from quarantine includes Australia, New Zealand and much of western Europe -- though not Portugal or Sweden, which have relatively high infection rates. Also on the list are Asian nations such as South Korea and Vietnam that have tamed their outbreaks and several Caribbean nations including Jamaica.
Some of those countries will still quarantine British visitors.
The U.S., which has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, isn't on the list. Neither is China, Russia or Brazil.
England's chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said authorities were trying "to balance as best we can the multiple risks."
"No one believes ... this is a risk-free next step," he said. "It's absolutely not.
"This virus is a long way from gone."
Information for this article was contributed by John Seewer, Jill Lawless, Danica Kirka and Pan Pylas of The Associated Press; and by Isaac Stanley-Becker, Chelsea Janes, Rachel Weiner, Jacqueline Dupree, Jeremy Duda and Lori Rozsa of The Washington Post.
