George Floyd Protest Did Not Contribute to COVID-19 Cases Despite Surge in US

The George Floyd protesters in Minnesota underwent coronavirus testing, and it showed that 1 in 70 protesters tested positive of the virus.

The current number of infections in the state

Thousands of people are out in the streets across the country, and the current events had made it impossible to practice social distancing. Health experts urged protesters to get tested because of the concerns of a new wave of infections.

The testing of protesters in Minneapolis last week showed a positivity rate of 1.4%, the health department had set up four testing sites for those who had participated in the demonstration. Currently, there are 3,300 people who are undergoing tests.

There were 1,300 test results that came out, and they were done on June 9 and 10, and it showed that 1.4% of the protesters have been infected with COVID-19. Currently, there are 417,000 tests being carried out in Minnesota.

However, not all suspected cases of COVID-19 are tested, which means that the data does not show the total number of people in Minnesota who have coronavirus. Based on the number of infections, around 500 in every 100,000 residents of Minnesota have COVID-19.

According to the health department, around 1,500 per 100,000 African Americans in the state have COVID-19 while 177 per 100,000 white Americans have COVID-19.

Despite thousands of protesters out in the streets every day, health officials say it is still too early to forecast if the protesters are the source of the spike in coronavirus cases in the country.

This is because it takes at least two weeks before the symptoms of coronavirus will show, and the protest across the country began in the last week of May.

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Although the coronavirus cases are increasing, the data from the Minnesota Health Department shows that the hospitalization connected to the virus is decreasing gradually, even though they are conducting mass testing.

The average number of new coronavirus cases has been 400 people a day, and this is following the Black Lives Matter protest. The number of cases went down from the original 700 cases a day that was reported last month before Memorial Day.

Spike in COVID-19 not connected to the protest

Even though the number of infections and hospitalizations is declining in Minnesota, the cases have rapidly increased in states like Texas and Florida. The two states have pushed ahead with reopening businesses and other public facilities even and President Donald Trump is even planning a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, Alabama reported new cases for four days straight. Other states such as California, Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Arizona, Oklahoma, and South Carolina all had recorded new coronavirus cases from June 11 to June 13.

Numerous health officials stated that the increase in cases is due to the gatherings that took place over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend last month.

New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus cases in the United States, is also seeing a drop in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and positive rates in the past few weeks.

However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is concerned that the massive gatherings brought by the protest may increase the number of coronavirus cases in the state by the end of June.