A woman and a young boy head into Watsonville from Pajaro on an errand run. —Tarmo Hannula

A massive Saraha Desert dust cloud has worked its way from Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, turning blue skies into a brown haze. Though an annual event, this storm has taken on gargantuan proportions, meteorologists said. The clouds so far has edged over a large swath of southern U.S. as far west as Houston and over parts of the  Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.

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There are now 2,383,500 cases of Covid-19 in the U.S.

Texas is reporting a record number of cases 13 days in a row, with the biggest surge in young people. In Houston, the epicenter of the illness in the Lone Star State, hospitals are overflowing with patients. Houston alone is reporting 2,200 deaths.

In Scottsdale, Arizona officials reported 5,000 new cases in a single day, while California weighed in with 7,000 cases in a single day Wednesday.

In Florida, one man in his 20s told a TV crew: “I was not wearing a mask or social distancing in a bar and felt invincible and it ended up being a big mistake.” He came down with Covid-19.

Dr. Ashish Jha of Cambridge said, “We are seeing this large increase because we opened up too quickly and without proper protection. I’m worried about where this trend is heading.” He referred to the surging numbers as a “wildfire” and said he does think the public needs a uniform mask law. Jha added that contact tracing is of extreme importance.

Governor Gavin Newsroom also stressed that wearing a mask is crucial to slow the surge. California now has more than 195,000 cases and 65 people died on Tuesday.

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Tarmo Hannula has been the lead photographer with The Pajaronian newspaper in Watsonville since 1997. More recently Good Times & Press Banner. He also reports on a wide range of topics, including police, fire, environment, schools, the arts and events. A fifth generation Californian, Tarmo was born in the Mother Lode of the Sierra (Columbia) and has lived in Santa Cruz County since the late 1970s. He earned a BA from UC Santa Cruz and has traveled to 33 countries.

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