US Reports Over 70,000 New Coronavirus Cases

By Staff, Agencies

The United States reported 73,795 new COVID-19 coronavirus cases and 1,157 deaths in a 24-hour period, according to a tracker ran by Johns Hopkins University.

The institution put the total cumulative number of infections in the country at 4.1 million, with death toll at 145,324.

A Reuters tally put the number of Friday's fatalities at 1,019, with at least 68,800 new cases found, and the New York Times counted 73,400 new infections and over 1,100 new fatalities.

The current surge in new infections largely comes on the back of the virus resurging in California, Florida, Texas and Arizona, and a top White House doctor said Friday that the infections in the four states could be about to level off.

“We’re already starting to see some plateauing in these critically four states that have really suffered under the last four weeks, so Texas, California, Arizona and Florida, those major metros and throughout their counties,” Dr. Deborah Brix, the US Coronavirus Response Coordinator, told NBC News.

In the meantime, the pandemic prompted US President Donald Trump to cancel the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, late on Thursday.

According to US media, Trump still intends to deliver an acceptance speech, and the party is now in search of a new location for this and some of the other events that were supposed to be part of the RNC in Florida.