Activists halt street protests in SC as some become infected

As the number of cases across the country continued to climb ominously Monday, organizers of “I Can’t Breathe” protests in South Carolina urged participants to get tested for the virus.

In a video posted Sunday on Facebook, organizer Lawrence Nathaniel said demonstrators who marched in Columbia, S.C., between May 30 and June 17 had tested positive. He said four organizers were confirmed infected, along with three photographers and six protesters.

“We need to do our part,” he said. “Go get tested. Don’t come to a protest until you get tested, okay?”

Nathaniel’s caution came as 29 U.S. states and territories reported increases in their seven-day averages of new confirmed cases and daily totals continued to approach record levels not seen since March and April. Public health authorities blamed virus-fatigued states that reopened before they had vanquished the virus while leaders of some of those states cited other factors.