Washington D.C. [USA], June 1 (ANI): Health officials have expressed distress that the ongoing protests against police brutality toward African-Americans and Latino populations, spurred by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, could result in another jump in coronavirus cases in the coming weeks and add to the already disproportionate burden of the disease on minority groups across the country.
“It’s a triple whammy of protests, plus raging pandemic, plus economic instability. Those three things together make for a perfect storm of viral transmission,” Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.
He said that he expects there will be a spike in cases due to protests. Mirror patterns would be seen around the world after governments started lifting lockdown restrictions, but this time on a larger scale, he stressed, because the protests are happening across the country, often in hot spots of transmission, like the South and West.
in cities hit by protests stressed that the country was still in the midst of a health emergency and encouraged the public to continue wearing masks and to adhere to social-distancing guidelines.
On average, without social-distancing measures, each infected person transmits the virus to two to four other people, according to several studies cited by the Journal. The risk for coronavirus transmission is greatest indoors–in enclosed, poorly ventilated and crowded settings, according to researchers.
In homes, the so-called attack rate, a measure of the percentage of people who get infected in a specific place or time, ranges from 4.6 per cent and 19.3 per cent. But in this case, the protests are happening out of doors, where the risk for transmission diminishes.
Airflow helps dilute viral particles, reducing the risk an infectious particle will come in contact with an uninfected person, the media reported further. Yet the protests increase the risks, infectious-disease, experts said, because protesters can come into proximity–often for long periods–and shout.
Outside, “there’s a lot of dilution, as long as you’re not standing right next to a person” who is infected, said Lisa Brosseau, a respiratory-protection expert and consultant for the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
The transmission by people without symptoms or before symptoms start is partly responsible for the challenges containing the spread of the virus. Protests also involve a lot of shouting, which further adds to the virus transmission risk, according to infectious-disease experts. Screaming can propel virus-laden respiratory droplets, even more, they said.
At the time, people may also be less vigilant about personal hygiene, mask-wearing and social distancing. The protests are “like having a stadium game every day and everyone’s going to it,” said Chin-Hong. “Because of anger and frustration and sadness, people are willing to minimize the biological risk,” he added.
The protests could spread the virus in communities already hard-hit, infectious-disease experts said. More than half of COVID-19-related deaths in Los Angeles County, where protests raged over the weekend, prompting curfews, have been among blacks and Latinos, according to data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Statewide, Latinos make up 39 per cent of the state’s population, but 54.5 per cent of cases and blacks account for 6 per cent of the population, but for 10 per cent of its deaths, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
According to media reports, New York City also paints a similar picture. “The virus is still out there. There’s still the potential for exposure,” William Scott, San Francisco chief of police said during a press conference Sunday.
George Floyd protests: Flames engulf 200 year old historic church near White House
Washington D.C [USA], June 1 (ANI) An over 200-year-old historic St John’s church near White House has been vandalised and set on fire as protests over the death of George Floyd escalated into rioting and multiple fires seen in Washington and other US cities.
“This church has been standing in our city since the early 1800s. Please avoid the area,” the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of the District of Columbia said on Twitter.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the basement fire, which police said was intentionally set. The MPD said it is currently responding to multiple fires intentionally set in Washington D.C and its suburban neighbourhoods.
Protestors were also seen pulling down a flag from the landmark that opened in the year 1816 and popularly nicknamed the “Church of the Presidents” as beginning with James Madison, every president has been an occasional attendee of services.
In Washington, Fox News cameras were rolling as flames erupted in the newly renovated basement of the St. John’s Church parish house; it was unclear exactly how the fire started or how much damage had been done to the church. A senior official said more than 50 Secret Service officers have been injured so far Sunday night, with the numbers expected to worsen, as rioters hurled bottles and Molotov cocktails.
There were protests in the area all day, and protesters set several fires on Sunday evening. According to the Washington Post, in Georgetown and elsewhere in America’s capital city, people spent the afternoon hammering plywood boards outside retail shops and restaurants in the hopes their businesses would escape the attacks that others a day earlier did not. American flags and parked cars and buildings were lit ablaze.
The city is now under curfew, which went into effect at 11 p.m. (local time) and will be active until 6 a.m. on Monday. The scale of the protests spanned from San Francisco to Boston and unfolding on a single night.
More than two dozen mayors and governors have imposed curfews, a level not seen the unrest following the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The New York Times reported.
In Indianapolis, two people were reported dead in bursts of downtown violence, adding to deaths reported in Detroit and Minneapolis in recent days.
Earlier Sunday, people robbed stores in broad daylight in Philadelphia and Santa Monica, California, and a driver sped a semitrailer toward a massive crowd of people assembled on a highway in Minneapolis — but remarkably, there were no initial reports of anyone hurt aside from that driver.
In neighbouring St. Paul, thousands gathered peacefully in front of the state Capitol, pledging to keep up the protests. The National Guard’s top general on Sunday said Guard units in nearly half of US states have been mobilized to help major cities deal with the riots. Gen. Joseph Lengyel said some 16,000 additional Guard troops have been deployed to 24 states and the District of Columbia in response to civil disturbances.
Floyd died Monday after a Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck. The officer has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter; he and three other officers were fired from the force after a video of Floyd’s death emerged.
Riots erupted from demonstrations in cities from San Francisco to Boston protesting the death of Floyd. The latest deployment brought the total number of deployed National Guard members to about 62,000 across the country. Other Guard members already had been deployed to assist with their governments’ COVID-19 relief efforts.(ANI)(ANI)
