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People line up to enter a department store in Brooklyn Borough of New York Xinhua News Agency/PA Images
Coronavirus
Covid-19: US posts record 77,638 new cases in 24 hours
It’s the third day in a row that a new daily record has been set in the world’s hardest-hit country.
THE US HAS seen a record number of coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period for the third consecutive day.
A tally by Johns Hopkins University counted 77,638 new infections on Friday in the country hardest-hit by the pandemic, where 139,128 total have died and 3.64 million have been confirmed as being infected.
Experts believe the US never emerged from its first wave of infections, and cases have been surging again in recent weeks, particularly across the south and west in states that pushed to lift lockdown restrictions early.
In Texas and Arizona, which are dealing with stark surges in virus cases and deaths, authorities are bringing in refrigerated trucks to cope with the body count.
Millions more children in the US have also learned that they are unlikely to return to classrooms full time in autumn because of the pandemic.
The country’s two most populous states each reported roughly 10,000 new cases and some of their highest death counts since the pandemic began.
Big numbers in Florida and Arizona are also helping drive the US resurgence that is forcing states to rethink the school year.
California Governor Gavin Newsom laid out strict criteria for school reopenings that makes classroom instruction unlikely for most districts.
The Democrat’s rules mandate that students above second grade and all staff wear masks. Los Angeles County reported 4,592 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, a single-day record.
Texas gave public schools permission to stay closed for more than 5 million students well into the fall.
Under the guidelines, schools can hold online-only instruction for up to the first eight weeks, potentially pushing a return to campus in some cities until November.
Most Chicago children would return to the classroom just two days a week and spend the other three days learning remotely under a tentative plan outlined by officials from the nation’s third-largest school district.
A final decision for fall classes for the district’s more than 300,000 students will not come until late August.
With reporting from Press Association.
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