The United States has dipped under 50,000 new daily infections for the first time in four days, but experts fear celebrations for the July 4th weekend will act like rocket fuel for the nation’s surging coronavirus outbreak.
ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — The United States has dipped under 50,000 new daily infections for the first time in four days, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, but experts fear celebrations for the July 4th weekend will act like rocket fuel for the nation’s surging coronavirus outbreak. This comes as Florida health officials say the state has reached a grim milestone: more than 200,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19. State statistics released Sunday show about 10,000 new people tested positive. Saturday’s numbers — more than 11,400 cases — marked a record new single-day high. More than 3,700 people have died. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said on ABC’s «This Week» that the high numbers of positive tests both in his county and the state are «extremely worrisome.»Johns Hopkins on Sunday counted 45,300 new coronavirus infections reported Saturday in the U. S. after three days in which the daily count reached as high as 54,500 new cases. The lower figure does not mean the situation in the U. S. is improving, it could be due to reduced reporting on a national holiday. The United States has the most infections and virus-related deaths in the world, with 2.8 million cases and nearly 130,000 dead, according to the university. Experts say the true toll of the pandemic is significantly higher, due to people who died before they were tested and missed mild cases. Worldwide, nearly 11.3 million people have been infected and over 531,000 have died, with outbreaks surging in India, South Africa, Pakistan, Brazil and several other Latin American countries. In a first, South Africa on Sunday reported more than 10,000 new confirmed cases in a single day. To show just how steep the U. S. infection curve is, authorities were reporting under 20,000 new infections a day as recently as June 15. On Saturday, Florida and Texas reported more record daily increases in confirmed cases and virus-related deaths have begun to rise.
