Phoenix mayor says Arizona reopened 'way too early' as coronavirus cases surge

Arizona reopened “way too early” after its coronavirus lockdown, the mayor of Phoenix has said as the US state and scores of others continue to see Covid-19 cases surging.

Kate Gallego, whose city is the capital of Arizona, made the comment amid a debate about whether states who left lockdown early inadvertently fuelled the virus’s resurgence.

“We opened way too early in Arizona. We were one of the last states to go to stay at home and one of the first to reemerge, and we reemerged at zero to 60", the Phoenix mayor said.

"We had crowded nightclubs handing out free champagne, no masks. Our 20- to 44-year-olds, which is my own demographic, really led the explosion,” Ms Gallego, a Democrat, went on.

Arizona has been one of the worst states impacted by the summer-time surge of coronavirus in America, with Texas, Florida and California among the others badly hit.

A Washington Post tracker of the seven-day average of new coronavirus cases reached a record high for the twenty-seventh day running over the weekend.

Donald Trump has sought to blame increased testing for the soaring case numbers, noting that the number of deaths from the virus has continued to fall since the spring.

However analysis by the website Axios has called that into question, noting confirmed coronavirus cases are rising at a much higher rate than testing in at least 10 states including Arizona.

The US president has announced another mass campaign rally despite government advice warning against large gatherings, with an event in New Hampshire scheduled for Saturday.

Mr Trump narrowly lost the state to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and hopes to turn it red at the November 3 election. New Hampshire has had relatively few coronavirus cases.

A line in the campaign announcement read: “There will be ample access to hand sanitiser and all attendees will be provided a face mask that they are strongly encouraged to wear.”

Meanwhile Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff who is a former Republican congressmen, said yesterday that the "vast majority" of Americans are safe from coronavirus.

He said during a Fox News interview: "When you start to look at the stats and look at all the numbers that we have, all the testing that we have, the vast majority of people are safe from this."