The Disneyland theme park neighborhood in Anaheim, a southern suburb of Los Angeles, looked like a ghost town on Wednesday morning. Restaurants, souvenir shops closed. Large empty boulevards, populated only by palm trees which occupy their central medians. Few pedestrians crossed the area, normally overflowing with parents and the cries of children, but especially to go further.
On avenue Katella, south of the theme park, however, a semblance of life has resumed after months of desertification, with its new, still shy ballet of vehicles approaching the parking lot of the Disneyland Resort. The place has been transformed into a COVID-19 vaccine injection center by health authorities. The only one in town, for the moment, that Omar Nuno, watches every day fill with the hope of a new time.
“They did well to install it there,” drops the employee of the King Inn Motel behind his “plexiglass” counter, able to count his customers of the day on the fingers of one hand. “Nothing has been happening there since last March and there is no shortage of space. “
Under his mask, the absence of a smile is confirmed by the fatigue in his eyes. “It’s totally depressing,” he admits. We have entered a very bizarre era. But at least with these people coming to get vaccinated, it will reduce the spread. 2.6 million doses have been administered to date in America’s most populous state, with its 39.5 million people, more than Canada as a whole. “It is a step in the right direction, towards the day when we will finally be able to find a normal life,” he adds.
A normal life. Californians have been calling for it vigorously since the lockdown imposed on them on December 3, after a spike in cases of infections brought the state’s health system closer to breaking point. California then took the lead among the states hardest hit by the spread of the coronavirus. In the last week, 23,147 new cases per day on average have been added to the 3.2 million already recorded since the start of the health crisis.
The disease has killed 547 people every day, for a week – 720 deaths on Wednesday alone – in a corner of the country that has already buried 39,000 victims of COVID-19. Death has been on an uptrend for two weeks, up 10%, according to the latest data.
Contested measure
And inevitably, the figures struggle to explain the sudden decision taken Monday by the governor of the state, Gavin Newsom, to immediately end the containment measures and partially reopen economic activity in California. With certain tags, however.
“Alleviating the restrictive measures now is a frightening idea”, summed up in an interview with the To have to Simon Levin, professor of ecology and biological evolution at Princeton University, New Jersey. He is a specialist in modeling the pandemic and the spread of the virus. “We still need these constraints. In a few months, with the vaccines, we will be able to return to a normal life. But not right now. “
“It is a surprising and hasty decision, so soon after the worst of the wave, adds his colleague Jamie Lloyd-Smith, specialist in the spread of pathogens at the University of California at Los Angeles. It would have been better to maintain a stronger distancing until the contamination had been reduced a little more. We should have made sure that high-risk groups were more vaccinated. But there are of course economic and political pressures that explain this gesture. “
As of Friday, Californians will be able to rediscover the pleasure of restaurant terraces, but not dining rooms, reconnect with their hairdresser, their beautician or even be active in gyms, but only outdoors. . The curfew, imposed between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., also ends Friday, and gatherings are once again possible, outside, three families at a time.
“As in the rest of the world, there is a fatigue of COVID that has settled here, summarizes epidemiologist Nancy Blinkin, professor at the University of California at San Diego. There is a strong desire to find normality, to see friends and family again, to send their children to school. The governor also said he would not hesitate to reimpose lockdown if the numbers started to climb again. “
Over a 14-day period, the number of new cases detected is down 47%, but they remain very high. California has counted more than 18,000, just as of Wednesday.
Seat in play
The astonishing decision taken by Gavin Newsom is part of a climate of growing criticism of the harsh measures he has imposed on Californians. The Democrat is on the eve of an election scheduled for 2022 where he will put his seat on the line.
On Monday, a campaign calling for the launch of hasty elections in 2021, to sanction the young governor, announced that it had collected 1.2 million signatures. The network of Donald Trump supporters, conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine activists are fueling this campaign, dubbed Rescue California. It takes 1.5 million to start the process, usually intended to get rid of a governor who has committed serious misconduct or is unfit to govern.
The elected official has also been facing for several weeks the prosecution of a hundred restaurant owners in court demanding the right to reopen and questioning the scientific foundations supporting the ban on serving meals on the terrace.
” It’s not too soon. It’s time to reopen, says Thea Merritt, owner of a small zero-waste business on Center Street in Anaheim. The past few months have been depressing and sad. I think it’s time to change our approach. You can go on living while keeping yourself safe. “
Not yet over, January has the highest death toll from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in the United States. There were 80,000 on the 27th of the month. More than 427,000 people have died from COVID-19 since the start of the crisis.
This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism FundThe duty.
A previous version of this article, which incorrectly stated that Princeton University was in Philadelphia, has been edited.
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