Gun-toting protesters take to the streets to demand an end to the US coronavirus lockdown
MASKED and gun-toting protesters gathered to demand an end to the US lockdown.
Demonstrations were held in cities across the US as President Donald Trump vowed to halt all immigration to beat coronavirus.
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Armed men were among hundreds at a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
They accused officials of exaggerating the scale of the pandemic and insisted stay-at-home orders were crippling the economy and have cost 22million their jobs.
Democratic state governor Tom Wolf has pledged to veto a bill that would force him to reopen some businesses.
Retired truck driver Mark Cooper, 66, reckoned: “All the projections were wrong, but we are still telling people to stay home and businesses to close.
“This is not quarantine, this is tyranny.”
But Yetta Timothy, 43, who was part of a counter-protest, said the nursing home where she worked had lost an untold number of patients.
“They are dying, everyday my life is on the line,” she said.
“I just can’t believe all of this is happening, that they want to go back to work.”
In Cheyenne, Wyoming, protesters held prayers in front of the state capitol building.
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Following marches in several states at the weekend, there were also protests in California as it emerged Kentucky saw a spike in Covid-19 deaths after anti-lockdown action there.
National security adviser Robert O’Brien said Mr Trump’s ban aimed to “put the health of the American people first during this crisis”.
The US death toll is more than 43,000.
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