Hot and sunny weather in Arizona led to crowds tubing on at least one river this weekend as that state and a dozen others face the worst surge in coronavirus cases since the pandemic started.
Temperatures were expected to rise to over 38°C on Sunday along the Salt River east of Phoenix. On Saturday, dozens of people climbed into inflatable inner tubes with coolers and took to the water to escape the heat. Very few wore masks.
Texas shuttered tubing and rafting business on Friday and some beaches in Florida are closing again ahead of next weekend's Fourth of July holiday to try to curb the rising outbreak in those states.
The surge in Covid-19 cases has been most pronounced in a handful of Southern and Western states that reopened earlier and more aggressively, despite warnings by health officials to wait to see a steady decline in cases.
For a third consecutive day on Saturday, the number of confirmed US cases rose by more than 40,000, one of the largest surges in the world.
Even in states where cases have been declining for weeks, outbreaks are happening. One bar in East Lansing, Michigan has been linked to more than 76 cases, according to the Ingham County Health Department. That number is likely to rise, officials cautioned.
Just a day after he sounded a note of optimism about the US response to the pandemic and said the country was in "a much better place," Vice President Mike Pence canceled events to campaign for Republican President Donald Trump's re-election in Florida and Arizona due to the outbreak, campaign officials said on Saturday.