The United States passed nine million reported coronavirus cases on Friday and broke its own record for daily new infections for the second day in a row, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University, as COVID-19 surges days before the country chooses its next president. The US, which has seen a resurgence of its outbreak since mid-October, has now notched up 9,034,295 cases, according to a real-time count by the Baltimore-based school. On Friday the country set a record for new daily infections of more than 94,000 in 24 hours, breaking the record of 91,000 it had set just one day earlier. With the virus spreading most rampantly in the Midwest and the South, hospitals are also filling up again, stretching the health care system just as the nation heads in to flu season. Authorities in El Paso, Texas, imposed a curfew this week to protect "overwhelmed" health care workers and began setting up field hospitals. Midwestern state Wisconsin has also set up a field hospital in recent weeks, and hospital workers in Missouri were sounding warning bells as cases there rise. Hospitals in the western state of Utah were preparing to ration care by as early as next week as patients flood their ICUs, according to local media. More than 229,000 people have died of the virus in the US since the pandemic began, the Hopkins tally showed as of Friday, with the daily number of deaths creeping steadily upwards in recent weeks also — though at present it remains below peak levels. Meanwhile, Russia's daily tally of coronavirus cases hit a record high of 18,665 on Sunday, including 5,261 in Moscow, taking the national tally to 1,636,781, Reuters reported. Authorities also reported 245 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 28,235. In Paris, France said Saturday that 224 more people had died from the new coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 36,788, as the number of confirmed cases rose by 35,641, Reuters reported. That compared to just under 48,000 confirmed cases reported the previous day and a record daily high of 52,010 last Sunday. The total number of cases now stands at 1.36 million. A new national lockdown came into effect as of Friday in France in an effort to put the brakes on a COVID-19 epidemic that officials say risks spiraling out of control. There were 2,507 people in intensive care units among new hospitalizations in the past seven days, the data on Saturday showed, up from 2,401 reported on Friday. In New Delhi, India recorded 46,963 new coronavirus cases and recorded 470 deaths in the last 24 hours. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday said the total number of cases reached 8,184,082 and 122,111 deaths. They added hat 7,491,513 people recovered from the pandemic as it spread to 35 Indian states. South Korea's new coronavirus cases rose by triple digits for the fourth straight day Saturday, Yonhap News Agency reported from Seoul. South Korea added 127 more COVID-19 cases, including 96 domestic infections, raising the total caseload to 26,511, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). — Agencies
