The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the United States topped two million on Wednesday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. (Straits Times reports)
The pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 112,900 people in the United States, which leads the world in the number of confirmed infections with 2,000,464, according to the Baltimore-based school’s latest count.
Though the outbreaks come weeks into state reopenings, it's not clear that they're linked to increased economic activity.
Texas on Wednesday (June 10) reported 2,504 new coronavirus cases, the highest one-day total since the pandemic emerged. (Straits Times reports)
A month into its reopening, Florida this week reported 8,553 new cases - the most of any seven-day period.
California's hospitalisations are at their highest since May 13 and have risen in nine of the past 10 days.
A fresh onslaught of the novel coronavirus is bringing challenges for residents and the economy in pockets across the US.
The localised surges have raised alarms among experts even as they're masked by the nation's overall case count, which early this week rose just under 1 per cent, the smallest increase since March.
"There is a new wave coming in parts of the country," said Dr Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Health Security.
"It's small and it's distant so far, but it's coming."
The White House Coronavirus Task Force has yet to see any relationship between reopening and increased cases of Covid-19, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said on a podcast.
But in some states, rising numbers outpace increases in testing, raising concerns about whether the virus can be controlled.
It will take a couple of weeks to know, Dr Toner said, but by then "it's going to be pretty late" to respond.
Since the pandemic initially swept the US starting early this year, almost two million people have been infected and more than 110,000 have died.
After a national shutdown that arrested the spread, rising illness had been expected as restrictions loosened.
The trend has been observed across 22 states in recent weeks, though many increases are steady but slow.
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