US daily virus cases hit new record of 120,000
Britain’s first city-wide coronavirus testing kicks off
washington — More than 120,000 coronavirus cases were reported in the US in the past 24 hours, smashing a daily record set the day before, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The country reported 123,085 new infections between 8:30pm on Wednesday and 8:30pm on Thursday, and 1,226 more deaths, the tally by the Baltimore-based school showed.
On Wednesday, 99,660 new cases of the virus were reported. Thursday’s tally shatters that record by 23,425 cases.
While deaths remain lower than their worst levels in the spring, Thursday was also the third day in a row that fatalities were above 1,000. The last time people were dying at that rate of Covid-19 in the US was early September.
More than 9.6 million people have been infected and 234,000 have died in the US so far during the pandemic, by far the highest tolls in absolute terms globally.
Health officials in some states have already sounded warnings about their ability to handle an influx in hospitalisations as the winter flu season looms.
Meanwhile, Liverpool on Friday began England’s first city-wide trial of coronavirus testing in an attempt
to prevent hospitals becoming overwhelmed during the country’s second wave of the pandemic.
All of the northwestern city’s 500,000 residents as well as people working there will be offered repeat tests, even if asymptomatic, under the pilot, which will initially run for two weeks.
Liverpool last month became the first region to enter the most severe tier of regional lockdown as it battled a spike in cases, followed by the nearby city of Manchester.
A month-long nationwide lockdown came into force on Thursday as cases began to spiral in all parts of England.—