WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Washington, D.C. on Wednesday urged people who had participated in protests against police brutality and systematic racism to get tested for the coronavirus.
The federal district joins a number of other locales, including Boston, Dallas and the state of New York, that have asked protesters to be tested, after thousands of people flooded the streets in demonstrations amid the pandemic that has sickened nearly 2 million Americans and killed about 112,000.
“If you are concerned that you have been exposed while out in the community or out at one of the demonstrations, we urge you to get tested … between three and five days, not sooner,” the federal district’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, told reporters.
The district is encouraging protesters to monitor themselves for signs and symptoms of the respiratory disease. It also encouraged them to work from home, if possible, for 14 days and restrict their movements, though top D.C. health official LaQuandra Nesbitt added that such restrictions were not the same as quarantining.
The U.S. capital has ramped up its availability of free testing, including offering COVID-19 tests at fire stations on evenings and weekends.
The calls for protesters to seek testing come as some public health experts, including top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, have warned that the demonstrations could lead to a spike in cases of the coronavirus.
Already, the D.C. National Guard has reported that some of its troops have tested positive for the virus, though it has not provided numbers for how many of them have been affected. [nL1N2DM1Y5]
The protests, which started in Minneapolis and spread across the country and worldwide, were sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. An African American, Floyd died after a white police officer pinned his knee against his neck, preventing Floyd from being able to breathe.
The U.S. capital has seen some of the largest protests in recent days.
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Tom Brown)
