- As the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, the CDC is advising Americans to be particularly cautious ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend.
- Some cities will close down beaches to help prevent the coronavirus from spreading at mass gatherings.
- As it stands now, more than 30 U.S. states are reporting a rise in new coronavirus infections.
With July 4th coming up in just a few days, there’s a very real concern that the holiday could provide a fertile breeding ground for the coronavirus to spread far and wide. While July 4th celebrations typically involve barbecues and group outings at public parks and beaches, these events are exactly the type of mass gatherings that can cause a spike in coronavirus infections.
In light of that, CDC Director Robert Redfield recently cautioned Americans to be especially vigilant about adhering to coronavirus safety guidelines this coming weekend. So even though some states are in the process of reopening, individuals at July 4th gatherings should still wear masks and, of course, follow social distancing guidelines.
“And so, for the fourth of July, which is a family event,” Redfield said on a press call a few days ago, “we want to re-emphasize that it’s really important that we get back to being vigilant to our collective commitment to do these social mitigation steps to protect the vulnerable friends, family, community, and those individuals that we don’t know that we’re interacting with, from potentially getting infected and having a poor, negative outcome because of the co-morbidities.”
Redfield added that maintaining proper safety precautions is incredibly important because it’s not often clear when individuals might have a pre-existing condition that makes them especially prone to some of the harsher and more deadly coronavirus symptoms. As we noted a few weeks back, some of the most common co-morbidities associated with coronavirus infection include Chronic cardiac disease, Diabetes, Chronic pulmonary disease, Chronic kidney disease, Asthma, and Dementia.
CDC Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases Jay Butler also provided a few simple guidelines individuals will want to keep in mind during the July 4th holiday:
Regarding the upcoming fourth of July holiday, again, the issues are the same in terms of how you can reduce your level of risk. Gatherings that are smaller are better than gatherings that are large. Being able to maintain social distance or physical distance, at least six feet, is better than being in closer proximity. Being outdoors is probably better than being indoors. And being around people who are wearing face coverings is better than not around those — around people who are not utilizing face coverings. So, we do recognize that families will want to be together over the holidays, but being able to minimize the people that you are around, particularly people that you have not been around in the past, is particularly important.
The CDC’s remarks come at a time when the coronavirus is spreading rapidly across a number of states. To this end, a number of states like Texas, California, and Florida are starting to revert back to lockdown measures in an effort to contain the virus.
Some states are also implementing new safety precautions ahead of the holiday weekend, with Los Angeles County, for example, recently declaring that beaches will remain closed throughout the July 4 holiday to prevent “dangerous crowding that results in the spread of deadly COVID-19.”
