A man rides a bicycle as people walk on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, Florida. — AFP photo
HOUSTON: America’s top infectious diseases expert has warned the US is facing a ‘serious problem’ from a resurgent coronavirus as the illness puts the brakes on reopening two of the country’s largest states.
Texas and Florida closed bars and reimposed other curbs on Friday as the number of infections in the US hit a single-day record with increases in 16 states, mostly in the south and west.
The contagion also continued its march through Latin America, where Brazil recorded another 1,140 deaths and Argentina toughened a lockdown in the capital Buenos Aires.
In Europe countries wrangled over plans to partially reopen the European Union (EU) border, with officials fretting over the reliability of virus data from abroad, notably China, where Covid-19 first emerged late last year.
Much of the Western world is pressing ahead with lifting restrictions on daily life despite warnings from health officials that haste could cost more lives.
“We are facing a serious problem in certain areas,” leading US immunologist Anthony Fauci said at the first briefing in two months by the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force.
“The only way we’re going to end it is by ending it together,” he said of the outbreak.
The US is recording more than 30,000 cases daily. With nearly 125,000 lives lost, it has by far the highest confirmed death toll in the world.
Texas had been among the most aggressive states in easing curbs but its strategy has backfired with the nation’s second most populous state seeing several daily records in the number of new infections.
“It is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars,” Governor Greg Abbott said.
European diplomats said they planned to exclude the US from travel to the continent when the bloc’s external frontier reopens on July 1.
EU envoys have argued on drawing up criteria and sources told AFP a meeting on Friday ended with a tentative list of about 18 countries free to travel.
With nations around the world at different stages on the outbreak curve, agreeing on ‘travel corridors’ has proved tricky.
The World Health Organisations on Friday called for another US$27.9 billion in donations to speed up the development and production of tests, vaccines and other treatments, part of its ACT accelerator plan to pool international resources.
About US$3.4 billion has already been pledged, the global body said ahead of a major fundraising event in Brussels by the EU Commission yesterday that will feature performances by celebrities including Shakira and Justin Bieber.
More than 490,000 people worldwide have now died from the virus and the number of cases is expected to reach 10 million in the next week, according to an AFP tally.
Much of the global count has come from Latin America, where Brazil, the hardest-hit nation in the region, has logged almost 55,000 deaths and more than 1.2 million cases.
With much of the world under lockdown for months, the virus has crippled economies and signs of the damage have been widespread.
In Southeast Asia theleaders of the 10-member Asean bloc said the pandemic would see the region’s economy contract for the first time in 22 years.
“It has swept away the successes of recent years… threatening the lives of millions of people,” Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said. — AFP