According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, the number of global cases skyrocketed to 12,268,630, a one-day gain of 274,448. On most days over the past week, the number of confirmed cases added has been over 150,000.

Evidence is emerging that the disease could spread in a way that would make it more difficult to control. A number of scientists claim that it can be airborne for hours. Dr. Benedetta Alleganzi, World Health Organization Technical Lead for Infection Prevention and Control, said:

We acknowledge that there is emerging evidence in this field, as in all other fields regarding the Covid-19 virus and pandemic and therefore we believe that we have to be open to this evidence and understand its implications regarding the modes of transmission and also regarding the precautions that need to be taken.

The focus of the spread moved away from Europe two months ago. As little as a month ago, it appeared that the United States would drop off the list of nations with rapidly rising confirmed cases. The large hotspots had moved to Russia, India, Brazil, Peru and Chile, where total confirmed cases soared. Brazil has been affected the most among these countries. Confirmed cases in the South American nation rose by 42,907 to 1,759,103. This makes it by far the hardest-hit country after the United States. COVID-19 deaths in Brazil have reached 69,254, after rising 1,199. That is a larger increase than the one in the United States, where deaths rose 803. Some experts believe that the confirmed case and death counts in Brazil will top those of the United States. The new U.S. surge has made that less likely.

Indeed, the U.S. total confirmed case count has added as much as any other nation to the large global surge, and America has become a major hotspot again. The American jump in confirmed case count has become much worse during the past several days, as the disease moved from the badly battered Northeast and Michigan and Illinois to states in the south and west. U.S. confirmed cases rose by over 60,000, the most since the start of the pandemic

Active cases worldwide are up to 4,973,582, and they are 41% of the total of global confirmed cases. The recovered case count is 6,740,124, a jump of 206,688. The increase was much larger than the day before. The positive spread between the numbers of recovered cases and active cases worldwide has shown improvement. It has moved above 1.6 million, one of the few good signs as the pandemic’s spread continues.

Global fatal cases hit 554,924, or 6,993 higher. At the current pace, the figure still could pass 600,000 by late July.

As noted, the acceleration of the spread of the disease worldwide largely is because of an explosion of confirmed cases in America. The increase in confirmed cases here has been by more than 50,000 most days in the last week. Today, confirmed cases in America were at 3,165,058, which is up by 55,558. Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that the increase could soon top 100,000 per day, and yesterday he confirmed his belief that surges in some states mean the figure, indeed, will continue to rise.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) commented that the actual U.S. case figure may be above 20 million and many of these people have no symptoms. The official U.S. confirmed case count is 26% of the world’s total.

Several large states are responsible for the U.S. swell in confirmed cases, including the three largest by population: California, Texas and Florida. These three states have about 26% of the total U.S. population. Increases are not isolated to these states though. The numbers of confirmed cases are also rising quickly in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and South Carolina. The worry is that the very widespread number of new cases geographically could trigger another sharp rise in states hit early, including New York, New Jersey and Michigan. In fact, Michigan’s confirmed cases has reached 75,063, a one-day boost of 1,163. Fatal cases in the Midwestern state rose by 20 to 6,271. That is a quickening, compared to most days in the past three weeks.

Active U.S. COVID-19 cases numbered 2,078,911, and recovered cases have reached 951,053, after adding 14,804. It remains a bad sign that the active case count is so much higher than recovered ones. American coronavirus fatalities have hit 135,094, up by 803. They are on pace to top 140,000 by the end of July.

One theory suggests that American deaths will increase in the coming weeks as confirmed cases have risen sharply, and at record rates in some states. There can be a lag of as much as two weeks between when a person becomes infected and when serious symptoms arise. Moreover, the number of asymptomatic cases in America may be well into the millions. That means much of the spread is hard to track.

People with new confirmed cases are an average of 15 years younger than several months ago. This largely is because of the ages of people infected in the south recently. Younger people are less likely to die from the disease than those over 65.

Massachusetts Slips Further Down the List of Confirmed Cases

Massachusetts was hit early and hard. Infections in Boston during March spread quickly to the western part of the state. Confirmed cases rose by over 1,000 a day from early April to early May. Fatalities began to grow by over 150 a day about two weeks later.

Its confirmed case total put Massachusetts among the five hardest-hit states in the early weeks of the spread of COVID-19 across the country. It has fallen to eighth place by that measure, with a count of 110,897. Its death count now stands at 8,268. In recent weeks, confirmed cases in California (296,499), Florida (232,718), Texas (230,346) and Arizona (112,671) have moved ahead of Massachusetts.

Chile and Peru Have Over 600,000 Cases When Combined

Chile and Peru are small nations based on total population. However, they have been battered by the spread of the disease. Peru’s population, at 32,510,453, ranks it 43rd in the world. Chile is in 63rd place with a population of 18,952,038.

Peru’s confirmed cases now number 316,448, with 11,314 fatal cases. Chile has 306,216 confirmed cases and 6,682 deaths. On the list of nations with the most confirmed cases, Peru ranks sixth and Chile ranks seventh.

The two countries combined have a confirmed case count not far behind that of Russia, which has 713,936. Russia is the ninth largest nation in the world, based on its population of 145,872,256. Russia’s official COVID-19 death count is 11,017, slightly smaller than Peru’s.

The main theory about the high figures in Peru and Chile is that the countries have extremely poor medical care and impoverished populations that live close together in large cities.

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