Coronavirus: Cases hit high as US rolls back shutdown

New daily coronavirus cases in the US has soared past 50,000 for the first time.

A waiter wears a face mask outside a restaurant at a shopping centre in Miami Beach, Florida, this week. Picture: AFP

New daily coronavirus cases in the US have soared past 50,000 for the first time, as the World Health Organisation delivered a grave warning that the global pandemic is accelerating.

Restaurants, bars and beaches in the world’s worst-hit nation closed from California to Florida, as states reeling from yet another surge in the deadly virus braced for Independence Day festivities.

Global infections have hit their highest level in the past week, WHO data showed, with chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying new cases topped “160,000 on every single day”.

The grim milestone came as the EU left the US, Brazil and Russia off its final list of nations safe enough to allow residents to enter its borders.

With more than 52,000 new COVID-19 cases in the US alone in the 24 hours till Thursday, several US states imposed 14-day quarantines on visitors in the build-up to the July 4 celebrations.

California suspended indoor dining at restaurants in Los Angeles and several counties, while New York scrapped plans to allow restaurants to seat customers ­inside from next week.

President Donald Trump reiterated his belief that the contagion will “at some point … sort of just disappear, I hope”.

The rollbacks came as the EU reopened its borders to visitors from 15 countries. The bloc hopes relaxing restrictions on countries from Australia to Uruguay will breathe life into its tourism sector, choked by a ban on non-essential travel since mid-March.

Travellers from China, where the virus first emerged late last year, will be allowed to enter the EU only if Beijing reciprocates.

Brazil — which has suffered the most deaths globally for the past week, and is the second-worst affected country overall — was excluded entirely. It topped 60,000 total deaths on Thursday, after suffering 1000 deaths in 24 hours.

However, with over 10 million known infections worldwide and more than 500,000 deaths, the pandemic is “not even close to being over”, the WHO warned. Data provided by the UN agency for the seven days from June 25-July 1 showed the highest number of new daily cases ever recorded came on Sunday, when more than 189,500 new cases were registered worldwide.

According to the UN, the crisis could cost global tourism and ­related sectors from $US1.2 trillion ($1.73 trillion) to $US3.3 trillion in lost revenue. Spain and Portugal held a ceremony as they reopened their border. The Netherlands also confirmed the reopening of another tourist draw — its brothels and red-light districts.

In other countries, clusters are still causing problems.

The Palestinian Authority announced a five-day lockdown across the West Bank after a surge in confirmed cases. And textile factories in the English city of Leicester were suggested as the reason for a spike in infections that has prompted the reimposition of local restrictions.

In the US, spikes across southern and western states are driving a surge in national infections.

Texas, which again broke its daily COVID-19 record with more than 8000 new cases, joined Florida and California in closing some beaches for the holiday weekend. Apple announced it would close another 30 US stores on Thursday, half in California.

A further 700 deaths nationwide took the US past 128,000 deaths in total.

The Pan American Health ­Organisation warned the death toll in Latin America and the ­Caribbean could quadruple to more than 400,000 by October without stricter measures.

The US government said this week it had bought 92 per cent of all remdesivir production — the first drug to be shown to be relatively effective in treating COVID-19. Britain and Germany, however, said on Wednesday they had sufficient stocks of the drug.

AFP