A Las Vegas bar Friday night, shortly before Gov. Steve Sisolak’s emergency declaration closed it.
Photo: John Locher/Associated PressU.S. infections set another daily record while new outbreaks spread across some Asian cities, challenging government efforts to contain the virus after relaxing social-distancing measures.
More than 66,000 coronavirus cases were confirmed in the U.S. on Friday, the highest daily number since the pandemic began, raising the country’s total to nearly 3.2 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. accounts for about a quarter of the 12.5 million cases reported globally.
India likewise set a record in confirmed cases, while infections transmitted locally jumped in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Melbourne this week, though the numbers are significantly lower than in the U.S. The resurgence has prompted governments in a handful of cities to reintroduce social-distancing measures.
“We and many other scientists around the world have said that once lockdowns were ended, that there was always the risk that the disease could bounce back,” Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization, said in a news briefing in Geneva on Friday. “Because if the virus is present, it will potentially take all opportunities to transmit.”
Across the U.S. more than 133,000 people have died since the onset of the pandemic in March. California, Texas and Florida, where cases have been rising, have the highest death tolls this month. Arizona, South Carolina and Alaska joined Texas as the states with the biggest percentage increases in deaths since the start of July, with fatalities rising more than 20%.
Soaring case counts are partly attributable to expanded testing that is detecting asymptomatic or less-severe cases, often among younger people. Treatments have also improved and health-care systems are better equipped to deal with some of the sickest patients, said Thomas Russo, professor and head of infectious disease at Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo.
South Carolina and Nevada joined the growing list of states imposing restrictions on bars as infections spread among young people. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Friday prohibited bars and restaurants from selling alcohol after 11 p.m.
Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering
Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also recently shut down bars and ordered most Texans to wear face masks in public. On Thursday he barred elective surgeries in dozens of counties, saying he was “freeing up resources to address upticks in Covid-19-related cases.” Texas had 9,689 coronavirus hospitalizations as of Thursday.
On Thursday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ordered restaurants with indoor seating to operate at less than 50% capacity. Daily new cases have declined since peaking at more than 5,000 on June 29. But the rate of people testing positive for Covid-19 was 11.7% on Friday, according to health department data, and roughly 89% of the state’s intensive-care unit beds were in use.
In Asia, India reported its biggest single-day increase in cases Saturday, with 27,114 infections, bringing the total to 820,916, the country’s health ministry said. India trails only the U.S. and Brazil in number of cases, according to Johns Hopkins data.
Sources: Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering; the Lancet; Associated Press; U.S. Census
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In Japan, the government said Saturday that 206 cases were confirmed in Tokyo, the third straight day that infections topped 200. The latest figures show that 430 new cases were recorded nationwide for Friday, the largest single-day increase since April. More than half—243—were in Tokyo, and more than three-quarters of the city’s new cases were among people in their 20s and 30s, many connected with nightlife districts, officials said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said hospitals still have plenty of room for coronavirus patients, in part because many of the newly diagnosed are young people without symptoms. He said the government plans to go ahead with loosening voluntary restrictions on public gatherings. Baseball stadiums took advantage of the looser guidelines: Starting Friday night they are allowing up to 5,000 spectators, with distancing between seats.
Authorities in the Australian state of Victoria, which includes Melbourne, the country’s second-biggest city, reported 216 new cases Saturday, compared with 288 the previous day. Officials renewed a lockdown in the area earlier this week as new cases mounted.
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In Sydney, officials were tracing a possible incidence of community transmission, centered on a pub. People who were there the night of July 3 were urged to self-isolate and get tested, and a pop-up clinic was set up in the pub’s parking lot. In the state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, seven new cases were detected Saturday, including five travelers.
Hong Kong reported 28 new cases Saturday, revised down from an earlier reported 29 cases, of which 16 were from local cases. Authorities said 33 preliminary cases were still pending confirmation. The number of cases had spiked in recent days from an outbreak at a nursing home, breaking a recent three-week streak of zero new local cases. In response, the city’s secretary for education accelerated the start of summer vacation for schools to next Monday.
South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 35 new cases Friday. Of those, 20 were local, including outbreaks in a shopping center, gym and church. Daily numbers have been decreasing since hitting a recent high of 63 last week from cluster infections outside the Seoul metropolitan area.
Write to Frances Yoon at frances.yoon@wsj.com
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