Washington (AFP) – Officials at the epicenter of the growing coronavirus crisis in the United States warned Sunday that their hospitals were in danger of being overwhelmed by the increase, as India recorded a record number of new cases.
As a sign of progress, Formula One returned with the Austrian Grand Prix that opened the season behind closed doors, while the Louvre museum in Paris will reopen on Monday after a 16-week shutdown.
The United States has struggled to respond to the devastation caused by the virus, with a national death toll rising to nearly 130,000 from 2.8 million confirmed cases, and many states affected by the rise in infections after the locks.
Hospital beds are full in parts of Texas, while orders for new orders to stay home are increasing. Some mayors say their cities reopened too soon, as President Donald Trump tries to minimize the disease that has plagued much of the country.
India faces similar challenges as it recorded a record daily number of cases in a large nation where medical facilities are uneven and many COVID-19 infections are likely to go undiagnosed.
The pandemic has killed at least 531,789 people worldwide since it emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP count on Sunday based on official sources.
More than 11 million people have been infected in 196 countries and territories.
After the United States, Brazil is the most affected country with 64,867 deaths, followed by Great Britain, Italy and Mexico.
The annual U.S. vacation weekend of July 4 was overshadowed by mounting evidence that its fractured response has come at a high price across the South and West, after previous hotspots like New York emerged of the worst of the virus.
“Our hospitals here in Harris County, Houston, and 33 other cities … are in surge capacity. Therefore, their operating beds are occupied,” said Lina Hidalgo, executive director of Harris County, which includes Houston. , Texas.
“The restaurants are still open. Indoor events can take place regardless of size,” he told ABC television. “What we need now is to do what works, which is an order to stay home.”
– “Too early” –
Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, also expressed concern that the health care system could cave in as the disease spreads rapidly.
“If we don’t change the trajectory, then I am within two weeks of the invasion of our hospitals. And in our ICUs, it could be 10 days from that,” he told CNN.
Phoenix City Mayor Kate Gallego said: “We open too early in the state of Arizona.” She suggested that a new order to stay home be issued.
The United States now records 40,000 new cases per day, peaking at 57,000 on Friday alone.
A high-profile victim of the global shutdown, the Taj Mahal, will remain closed, it was announced Sunday when India reported 25,000 cases and 613 deaths in 24 hours, the highest daily spike since the first case was detected in late January. .
In the capital, New Delhi, medical staff began treating patients in a spiritual center turned into an isolation center and hospital with 10,000 beds, many of cardboard and chemically coated to make them waterproof.
Critics allege that India is conducting very little testing, leaving the true scale of the pandemic unknown.
– Military doctors –
In South Africa, dozens of military doctors were deployed Sunday after a surge of infections in the East Cape province.
Like India, South Africa imposed some of the strictest measures to stay home in the world in late March in an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19, but the number of infections increases daily as the rules of blockage are gradually reduced.
Iran announced 163 new deaths, the highest official one-day figure since the outbreak began, while Morocco discovered an outbreak at a fish cannery, with 300,000 residents locked up.
England’s pubs reopened after a three-month hiatus on Saturday, and police concluded that the thousands of people crowding the streets of London’s Soho nightlife district made it clear “that drunk people cannot / cannot they distance themselves socially. “
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted that “people have largely acted responsibly,” as the number of infections in Britain continues to decline.
The Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, will reopen on Monday with almost a third of its galleries closed and the overcrowding forbidden around the “Mona Lisa” and other masterpieces.
To avoid bottlenecks, the arrows will guide visitors through the galleries on a one-way route.
The battle for the grim virus in Latin America continued, with Chile passing 10,000 deaths on Sunday, while Mexico has had 30,000 deaths.
In Lebanon, a philharmonic orchestra performed on Sunday in front of the Roman ruins without spectators when the Baalbek International Festival was reduced to a single concert.
A Canadian military plane on its way to Latvia for a NATO mission was forced to turn around for fear that troops on board had been exposed to the virus before taking off at a military base in Ontario, where someone tested positive.
