New coronavirus infections have soared to record highs in six American states, marking a rising tide of cases for a second consecutive week as authorities in Beijing said another 31 people had been infected in a fresh outbreak in China.
Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas all reported their most ever new cases on Tuesday after all-time highs last week and as they continued to reopen their economies. Nevada also reported its highest single-day tally of new cases on Tuesday, up from a previous high on 23 May.
Donald Trump is planning to hold an indoor campaign rally in Oklahoma this weekend despite the state recording 591 new coronavirus cases on Monday, a 7.7% increase and the highest in the United States. According to Reuters cases in Oklahoma rose 68% last week.
The vice-president, Mike Pence, said officials were considering outdoor venues for the rally in Tulsa which would be Trump’s first since the virus took hold in the US in March.
On Tuesday Oklahoma health officials urged anyone attending the rally to get tested for coronavirus before arriving and then to self-isolate following the event and get tested again. The health commissioner urged those over 65 or at higher risk of coronavirus-related complications to stay home.
Pence said in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that alarm about the continued rise in infections was “overblownâ€.
However, hospitalisations have continued to rise.
At Tucson Medical Center in Arizona on Monday only one intensive care unit (ICU) bed designated for Covid-19 patients was available with the other 19 beds filled, a hospital representative said.
“ICU to be expanded, hopefully, in coming days,†Dr Steven Oscherwitz, an infectious disease expert at the hospital, said in a tweet on Monday night. “Not sure where people needing ICU care will be able to go, since most AZ [Arizona] hospitals are pretty full now.â€
Hospitalisations also hit a record high in Texas but the state had nearly 15,000 hospital beds available, said the governor, Greg Abbott.
The top Texas health official, John Hellerstedt, said the increase was manageable but the situation could change.
Health officials in many states attribute the spike to businesses reopening and Memorial Day weekend gatherings in late May. Many states were also bracing for a possible increase in cases stemming from tens of thousands of people protesting for the past three weeks to end racial injustice and police brutality.
In China, officials in Beijing said there were 31 new confirmed coronavirus cases as of midnight on Tuesday, up from 27 cases reported a day earlier as the city moved to curb the new outbreak. Nineteen of the new cases were reported in the south-western district of Fengtai, where a cluster of infections emerged last week.
The city has been placed on its second-highest alert level. Roads and factories are still open but movement in and out of the city is strictly controlled.
New Zealand, another country where the virus appeared to have been eliminated, was grappling with how a British woman was allowed to leave her mandatory hotel quarantine after flying in to Auckland and travel 650km to visit a dying relative without being tested for coronavirus. The woman came down with symptoms while driving to Wellington and later tested positive, along with another woman she was travelling with.
Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, said it was an unacceptable failure of the system and ordered the military to take control of quarantining and testing of arrivals from overseas.
Brazil recorded its worst day yet for new cases on Tuesday as the virus continued to spread rapidly in Latin America’s biggest and most populous country.
The health ministry said there were 34,918 diagnoses in 24 hours, bringing its overall total to 923,189. It also registered 1,282 deaths since the last update on Monday, bringing the number of confirmed fatalities to 45,241.
Mexico recorded its third-worst daily tally of fatalities with 730 deaths on Monday.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has installed a disinfection tunnel for visitors at his residence outside Moscow. Anyone summoned for a meeting with Putin must enter the chamber where they are sprayed with a disinfecting mist.
Russia has almost 550,000 cases of the virus, the third-highest in the world after the US and Brazil. More than 8 million people have contracted the virus around the world and 441,000 people have died from Covid-19.
