The New York Times - USA (2020-08-06)

A4 THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020

Tracking an Outbreak

Y

The number of coronavirus deaths around the world passed 700,
on Wednesday, and the number of cases in Florida topped 500,000.
Behind the numbers are worrisome trends, especially for coun-
tries that seemed to be succeeding in holding down transmission
rates not long ago. Almost twice as many countries have reported
significant rises in new cases over the past two weeks as have re-
ported significant declines. Among them Spain and Australia, which
believed they had a handle on the virus. The case counts are also
going up in Latin America. Brazil, which has been particularly hard
hit, is still seeing cases rise, as are Colombia and Peru.
In the United States, Florida joined California as the only states
with more than a half million cases. Florida started to see a jump in
infections in June, and on June 20, the day the state health depart-
ment urged social distancing and mask-wearing, the state’s seven-
day average was just under 2,900 cases. But Florida’s caseload has
been on the decline recently. The current seven-day average is just
over 7,900 cases, down from 11,865 on July 16. As of Wednesday,
7,626 people have died there of the coronavirus.
New cases are decreasing in 10 states, including Florida and
California, but they are increasing in 12 states, Puerto Rico and the
United States Virgin Islands. Day after day, more Americans are
being tested, but the results can be slow in coming. The Trump
administration has offered new support to hard-hit regions with a
“surge testing” program, but the bulk of government-sponsored
testing has been arranged by cities, counties and states that have
hired third-party contractors. The result is that the delays vary from
state to state, and within each state, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
On Wednesday, the administration announced the latest deal
under Operation Warp Speed, its multiagency effort to deliver coro-
navirus vaccines and treatments as quickly as possible — a $1 bil-
lion commitment to the pharmaceutical company Johnson & John-
son. The company promised the government as many as 100 million
doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine, which recently went
into a Phase 1 clinical trial in Europe and the United States, an
important step in deciding if the drug is safe. A study published in
the journal Nature last week said that only one dose of the drug
protected monkeys from infection. Some of the potential vaccines
being developed by other companies require two doses.

Checking Up on Visitors

Where have you been lately? Where have you come from?
These are questions that will be asked at random checkpoints at
bridges and tunnels leading into New York City and at Pennsylvania
Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.
The city is setting up the checkpoints to make sure travelers are
aware of a rule directing those arriving from states on a travel advi-
sory list that they must quarantine for 14 days. As of Wednesday, 35
states and Puerto Rico were on the list.
The quarantine requirement is a state rule that has been in
effect since late June, but enforcement efforts had focused mostly
on airports. As cases surged across the country, New York officials
worried that travelers could touch off another widespread outbreak
in the city, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said 301 new cases were
posted on Wednesday. About 20 percent of new coronavirus cases in
the city have involved people who came from other states, according
to Dr. Theodore G. Long, the executive director of the city’s Test &
Trace Corps.

Unconstitutional Quarantine

A 14-day quarantine in Portugal’s Azores Islands violated the
constitution, Portugal’s Constitutional Court ruled. According to
Reuters, the court said that the authorities on the islands had
treated people as if they were serving a short prison sentence by
confining them in hotels, regardless of whether they had symptoms.
The regional government of the Azores, more than 850 miles off the
coast of Portugal, decided in March that all arriving air passengers
had to spend two weeks in isolation. At first, the authorities in the
Azores covered the hotel bills, but travelers who arrived after May 8
had to pay for themselves.
Switzerland announced that it would impose a 10-day quarantine
on travelers arriving from Spain, except for those coming from
Spain’s two archipelagoes — the Canary Islands and the Balearic
Islands. Switzerland joins a few other European countries, including
Britain, that have imposed restrictions on Spain because of an up-
tick in the number of cases there. On Wednesday, Spain posted 1,
new cases, the most since a national lockdown was lifted in June
and 594 more than were reported on Tuesday.

Breakups Abound in Belgium

More husbands and wives in Belgium have said “I don’t” in 2020
than in 2019. The Belgian notary federation said that breakups had
risen noticeably since mid-May, when the lockdown was lifted and
married couples whose relationships had soured could get out and
get a divorce. Mutual consent divorces that did not require a court
hearing rose nearly 25 percent in the second half of May, compared
with the same period last year, the federation said, and 19.3 percent
in June, compared with June 2019. In July, the federation said, 13.
percent more couples divorced than in July 2019.
Bart van Opstal of the online notary portal notaris.be said that
the lockdown had been “a tough relationship test for many married
couples,” although he noted that the figures reflected a “catch-up
effect” for couples who had been granted divorces but had not
signed the papers before the lockdown.

By JAMES BARRON

Coronavirus Update

Coronavirus Update wraps up the day’s developments with infor-

mation from across the virus report.

Death Toll Rises Past 700,000 Worldwide

New Cases Drop in Florida and California

More Get Tested, but Results Are Delayed

New Coronavirus Cases Announced Daily in U.S.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

March 1 August 5
Note: Wednesday’s total is incomplete because some states report
cases after press time. Data is as of August 5, 2020, at 5 p.m. Eastern.
Sources: State and local health agencies; hospitals; C.D.C.

As of Wednesday evening, more than 4,818,400 people across every
state, plus Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories, have tested
positive for the virus, according to a New York Times database.

New cases

7-day

average

60,

30,

Average daily cases per 100,000 people

in the past week

16 Few or

no cases

32 48

Hot Spots in the United States

THE NEW YORK TIMES

As of Wednesday evening, more than4,818,400 people across every state, plus Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories, have tested positive for

the coronavirus, according to a New York Times database. More than 158 ,30 0 people with the virus have died in the United States.

Nev.

Ga.

Miss.

Conn.

N.C.

Iowa

N.D.

Kan.

Te x a s

R.I.

Mass.

Ark.

Utah

Mont.

S.C.

Mich.

Calif.

Wis.

N.M.

Ill.

Fla.

Wyo.

N.Y.

Ind.

Minn.

Ore.

Maine

Alaska

Tenn.

Pa.

Md.

Ariz.

Wash.

N.H.

Hawaii

Mo.

Del.

W. Va.

N.J.

Idaho

D.C.

Ohio

Ky.

Okla.

La.

Ala.

Vt.

Neb.

S.D.

Minn.

Colo.

Va.

Puerto Rico

Sources: State and local health agencies. The map shows the share of population with a new reported case over the last week. Parts of a county with a

population density lower than 10 people per square mile are not shaded. Data for Rhode Island is shown at the state level because county level data is

infrequently reported. Data is as of August 5, 2020, at 5 p.m., Eastern.

The announcement by Mayor

Bill de Blasio on Wednesday

seemed to signal a new crack-

down in the city’s efforts to curb

the spread of the coronavirus:

“Traveler registration check-

points” would be set up at bridges

and tunnels, conjuring images of

police officers stopping cars and

detaining people from out of state.

The reality may be a lot less

stark — and a lot more confusing.

The authorities will not be stop-

ping every car. They will likely not

be at every crossing on any given

day. The Police Department won’t

even be involved.

Instead of working to enforce

the state’s mandatory quarantine

for people coming from states

with climbing coronavirus cases,

the checkpoints, run by the city’s

sheriff’s office, will focus on in-

forming travelers about the rules.

Even so, Mayor de Blasio

presented the program as a cru-

cial step in fending off the re-

surgence of the virus in the city,

which was once the center of the

pandemic but has maintained a

low rate of infection in recent

weeks.

“If we’re going to hold at this

level of health and safety in the

city and get better, we have to deal

with the fact that the quarantine

must be applied consistently to

anyone who has traveled,” Mr. de

Blasio said at a news conference.

Hours after the mayor’s an-

nouncement, many details of the

checkpoint program remained un-

clear — including to the region’s

transit agencies, who oversee the

city’s bridges and tunnels.

A spokesman for the Port Au-

thority of New York and New Jer-

sey, which operates crossings into

the city, said that the mayor’s an-

nouncement surprised the

agency. The spokesman did not

know whether any of its bridges

or tunnels would be targeted and

had no details of the plan.

The Metropolitan Transporta-

tion Authority, which operates

bridges and tunnels within the

city, said it was not involved with

the checkpoints.

Laura Feyer, a spokeswoman

for Mr. de Blasio, said that the city

would most likely not provide ad-

vance notice of where the check-

points would be so that motorists

did not try to route around them.

“Most checkpoints will be at

roadways coming into the city af-

ter bridges and tunnels, not on

Port Authority property them-

selves,” Ms. Feyer said.

State and city officials have

been warning for weeks about a

potential second wave of virus

cases driven by travelers from the

dozens of states where the out-

break has surged in recent weeks.

In late June, as cases began

climbing around the country, New

York’s governor, Andrew M.

Cuomo, ordered people coming

from states with a high percent-

age of positive tests to quarantine

for two weeks upon their arrival.

As of Tuesday, travelers from 34

states and Puerto Rico are subject

to the order.

From the day of its announce-

ment, the measure was met with

skepticism about how it could be

enforced. Those who violate the

quarantine can be subject to fines

of up to $10,000 for subsequent vi-

olations, but state officials ac-

knowledged that they would not

be tracking every person who en-

tered the state.

To boost compliance, the state

last month began requiring peo-

ple disembarking at New York’s

airports to fill out a form with their

personal information and recent

whereabouts or face a $2,000 fine.

Though the state says all trav-

elers should fill out the form, com-

pliance has largely depended on

the whims of the people entering

the state. Those who entered New

York using highways, train sta-

tions and buses had not been sub-

ject to the same level of scrutiny.

City officials said on Wednes-

day that the checkpoints will help

them monitor potential new out-

breaks. They had grown particu-

larly concerned amid an uptick in

cases in neighboring New Jersey

and regional partners like Massa-

chusetts and Rhode Island.

Ted Long, the executive direc-

tor of the city’s testing and con-

tact-tracing program, said New

York was moved to act after re-

cent data suggested a fifth of the

city’s new coronavirus cases were

attributed to travelers entering

New York City from other states.

The city’s sheriff, Joseph Fucito,

said that deputies would stop cars

on a random basis. The traffic

stops will not target drivers with

out-of-state license plates — as of-

ficials in Rhode Island did in

March, much to the chagrin of

New York officials.

The deputies will then ask driv-

ers coming from designated

states to fill out the required forms

and provide them with details

about the state’s quarantine rules,

officials said. The sheriff’s office

cannot force travelers to comply

with the quarantine, and it is un-

clear if or how the city would track

whether they comply.

The sheriff’s office has been in-

creasingly involved in enforcing

social-distancing guidelines, in-

cluding at the city’s restaurants

and bars.

The checkpoints arrive during a

time of vociferous debate over the

role of law enforcement in the city.

Albert Fox Cahn, a New York

lawyer who runs the Surveillance

Technology Oversight Project, a

privacy advocacy group, said in a

statement that the plan created

privacy risks with no clear bene-

fit.

“The mayor is transforming

this pandemic into a policing is-

sue,” Mr. Cahn said.

Both the sheriff and the mayor

said that travelers’ individual

rights and civil liberties would be

respected. Ms. Feyer said that

sheriff’s deputies would not issue

summons for other legal vio-

lations except “under extreme cir-

cumstances.”

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, also

faced criticism from some Repub-

lican elected officials, including

Councilman Joseph Borelli of

Staten Island, who said the check-

points were unlikely to be effec-

tive and amounted to “theatrics.”

In addition to the checkpoints at

bridges and tunnels, the city will

also set up similar efforts at Penn

Station, starting on Thursday, and

at the Port Authority Bus Termi-

nal to inform out-of-state trav-

elers about the mandatory quar-

antine.

Pennsylvania Station, where checkpoints will also be set up. The city likely won’t provide advance notice of where they will be.

JAMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY IMAGES

Informing travelers

from some states

about a quarantine.

NEW YORK

City Plans Checkpoints at Bridges and Tunnels

By MICHAEL GOLD

Juliana Kim and Dana Rubinstein

contributed reporting.