MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Rosa Jimenez Cano felt compelled to attend a protest against police brutality to stand with fellow black Americans, then realized afterward how much the coronavirus complicated t\u2026<\/b>
\nBy KELLI KENNEDY, DANICA KIRKA and PABLO GORONDI
MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Rosa Jimenez Cano felt compelled to attend a protest against police brutality to stand with fellow black Americans, then realized afterward how much the coronavirus complicated things.
\u201cThis can be kind of a tinderbox for COVID,\u201d the 39-year-old venture capitalist said after attending a demonstration in Florida in response to the death of George Floyd by police in Minnesota.
As more beaches, churches, mosques, schools and businesses reopened worldwide, civil unrest in the United States over repeated racial injustice is raising fears of new virus outbreaks in a country that has more infections and deaths than anywhere else in the world. And it\u2019s not just in the U. S. \u2014 London hosted a large anti-racism protest Sunday that certainly violated government social distancing rules.
Rosa Jimenez Cano said she planned to self-quarantine for 14 days, worrying she was perhaps \u201cirresponsible\u201d in attending the protest Saturday night in Miami and exposing herself to \u201cso many people.\u201d
Protests over Floyd\u2019s death have shaken the country from Minneapolis to New York, from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Some have turned into riots and clashes with police, leaving stores in flames and torched cars in the streets.
Floyd, a black man, died May 25 in Minneapolis saying \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck. It was the latest in a series of deaths of black men and women at the hands of police in America.
Health experts fear that silent carriers of the virus could unwittingly infect others at protests where people are packed cheek to jowl, many without masks, many chanting, singing or shouting. The virus is dispersed by microscopic droplets in the air when people cough, sneeze, sing or talk.
\u201cThere\u2019s no question that, when you put hundreds or thousands of people together in close proximity, when we have got this virus all over the streets\u2026 it\u2019s not healthy,\u201d Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d
\u201cTwo weeks from now across America, we\u2019re going to find out whether or not this gives us a spike and drives the numbers back up again or not.\u201d
The U. S. has seen over 1.7 million infections and nearly 104,000 deaths in the pandemic, which has disproportionately affected racial minorities in a nation that does not have universal health care.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday she was very concerned that the protests in the nation\u2019s capital and elsewhere could provide fertile ground for a new series of outbreaks. Many of the protesters were wearing masks, but there were no attempts at social distancing.
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working very hard in these last eight to 10 weeks to not have any mass gatherings,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a nation, we have to be concerned about a rebound.\u201d
Even the many protesters wearing masks are not guaranteed protection. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says cloth masks keep infected people from spreading the virus but are not designed to protect wearers from getting it.
Mass protests in connection with Floyd\u2019s death were also being held in Europe.
In London, thousands of people marched Sunday chanting \u201cNo justice! No peace!\u201d while carrying signs reading \u201cJustice for George Floyd\u201d and \u201cRacism is a global issue.\u201d Many demonstrators were not wearing masks and most in the crowd at Trafalgar Square were packed closely together. Britain has seen nearly 38,500 virus deaths, the second-highest in the world after the United States.
In Berlin, hundreds of protesters picketed outside the U. S. Embassy on Saturday night under the motto: \u201cJustice for George Floyd.\u201d Others marched near the U. S. embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Many Americans returned Sunday to in-person church services for the first time in weeks and tens of thousands of mosques reopened across the Middle East, but countries from India to Colombia still saw rising numbers of new infections.
Nearly 6.1 million infections have been reported worldwide, with nearly 370,000 people dying, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The true death toll is believed to be significantly higher, since many victims died of the virus without ever being tested.
The situation worsened Sunday in India, where new daily cases topped 8,000 for the first time and 193 more deaths were reported. Despite that, India still is easing restrictions on shops and public transport in more states beginning Monday, although subways and schools will remain closed.
In Saudi Arabia, mosques reopened Sunday for the first time in more than two months, but Islam\u2019s holiest site in Mecca remained closed. In Jerusalem, throngs of worshippers waited outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque before it reopened. Many wore surgical masks and waited for temperature checks as they entered.
In Bogota, the capital of Colombia, authorities were locking down an area of nearly 1.5 million people as cases continued to rise. Mayor Claudia Lopez said no one in the working-class Kennedy area \u2014 inaugurated by the late U. S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961 \u2014 will be allowed out, except to seek food or medical care or in case of an emergency. Factories must also close.
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said Sunday that he would ask Parliament for a final two-week extension of the nation\u2019s state of emergency that is set to expire on June 7. That allows the government to keep ordering lockdown measures to control its coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed at least 27,000 lives, many of them in overwhelmed nursing homes.
\u201cWe have almost reached safe harbor,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis cautioned people against being pessimistic as they emerge from coronavirus lockdowns.
During Mass in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica to mark Pentecost Sunday, Francis noted a tendency to say that \u201cnothing will return as before.\u201d That kind of thinking, Francis said, guarantees that \u201cthe one thing that certainly does not return is hope.\u201d
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Kirka reported from London and Gorondi reported from Budapest. AP reporters from around the world contributed to this report.
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