America’s top infectious diseases expert has warned the United States is facing a “serious problem” from a resurgent COVID-19 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 U.S. hit a single-day record with increases in 16 States, mostly in the south and west.
The United States recorded 45,242 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, bringing the total number of Americans who have tested positive to at least 2.48 million.
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.
Reopening EU border
In Europe countries wrangled over plans to partially reopen the EU border.
“We are facing a serious problem in certain areas,” leading U.S. 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.
European diplomats said they planned to exclude the U.S. 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 said 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 WHO on Friday called for another $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 resources.
