According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, the number of global cases has risen to 12,507,849. On most days over the past week, the number of confirmed cases added worldwide has been over 200,000.

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. Debate about this continues. However, if the observation is true, the disease can spread much easier than scientists previously believed.

The focus of the spread moved away from Europe two months ago. The horrible outbreaks in Italy and Spain have slowed considerably. Six weeks 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, Chile and Mexico, where total confirmed cases soared.

Brazil has been most affected among these countries. Confirmed cases in the South American nation rose by 55,485 to 1,866,176. This daily increase is nearly as high as that in the United States. Brazil is by far the next hardest-hit country after America. COVID-19 deaths in Brazil have reached 72,151, up by 1,528. That is a larger increase for the day than the one in the United States, where fatal cases total 137,191, after adding 570. Some experts believe that the confirmed case and death counts in Brazil would top those of the United States later in the summer, though the new U.S. surge has made that much less likely.

The next hardest-hit nation is India, where confirmed cases hit 879,888, a one-day gain of 28,627. Fatal cases number 23,200, or 501 more than yesterday. India’s numbers may be low because of the difficulty in counting cases and deaths in the poor places in its crowded cities and far-flung rural areas.

Russia, the fourth hardest hit nation in the world, reported confirmed cases of 733,699, a rise of 6,537. Deaths in Russia due to COVID-19 are at 11,439, up by 104. The relatively low increases reported in Russia have caused concerns that the central government’s data is not entirely accurate.

The U.S. confirmed case count has contributed as much as any other nation to the large global surge, and America has become a major hotspot again. The American surge in confirmed cases has become much worse during the past several days, as the disease moved from the badly battered Northeast, as well as Michigan and Illinois, to states in the south and west, particularly Arizona, Florida and Texas. U.S. confirmed cases hit 3,366,515, after increasing by 75,521.

Active cases worldwide are now reported to be 5,056,475, and they are 40% of the total of global confirmed cases. The recovered case count is 6,890,914. The positive spread between the numbers of recovered cases and active cases worldwide has shown improvement. It has risen above 1.8 million, one of the few good signs as the pandemic’s spread continues.

Global fatal cases have hit 560,460. At the current pace, the figure could pass 600,000 by late July.

As noted, the acceleration of the spread of the disease worldwide is largely due to an explosion of confirmed cases in America. The increase in confirmed cases there has been greater than 50,000 most days in the past week, and by 60,000 the past three days.

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 may 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 also are 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, Michigan, Massachusetts and Illinois. Indeed, confirmed cases in Illinois have reached 153,916, gaining 954 in a day. Fatal cases in the Midwestern state rose by 19 to 7,187. That is a significant increase compared to most days over the past three weeks.

Active U.S. COVID-19 cases numbered 2,240,668, and recovered cases have reached 988,656, up by 18,311. It is worrisome that the active case count is so much higher than recovered ones.

As mentioned above, American coronavirus fatalities have risen by 570 to 137,191. That is 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 symptoms occur. Moreover, the number of asymptomatic cases in America may be well into the millions. That means much of the spread is hard to track. In fact, deaths from the virus have started to accelerate in some states that were hit late. Florida posted a record 120 deaths three days ago. Fatal cases there now have increased to 4,242, higher by 45. Fatalities in Texas rose to 3,192, a jump of 80. The increase in deaths in both states has picked up significantly.

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.

Miami-Dade at Center of Florida Outbreak

Miami-Dade is the seventh largest county in America, with a population of 2,761,581. Its COVID-19 figures are a big part of Florida’s totals. Confirmed cases in Florida rose by 15,300, a record figure for a single day, to 269,811. As mentioned, coronavirus deaths in the state total 4,242, after adding 45.

Miami-Dade’s figures are 64,444 confirmed cases (an increase of 3,576) and 1,139 fatal cases (up by seven).

Mexico Numbers Start to Heat Up

Mexico’s numbers have trailed those in Brazil, Chile and Peru, but that has started to change.

Its confirmed case count hit 299,750, or 4,482 more in a day. That puts it eighth in the world by this count. The increase was larger than Chile’s 3,012 to 315,041 cases.

Fatal cases in Mexico total 35,006, which is now higher than those in Peru or Chile. That was after a one-day increase of 276 deaths.

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