According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, the number of global cases has reached 11,994,182, after rising 196,969 in the past day. The figure will hit 12 million today. On most days over the past week, the number of confirmed cases added has been over 100,000.

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 three 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 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 41,541 to 1,716,196. This makes it by far the hardest-hit country after the United States. COVID-19 deaths in Brazil have reached 68,055, a one-day gain of 1,187. Some experts believe that the confirmed case and death counts in Brazil will top those of the United States (see below).

However, 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.

Active cases worldwide are up to 4,912,815, and they are 41% of the total of global confirmed cases. The recovered case count is 6,533,436, a jump of 118,057. 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 547,931, or 4,336 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 there has been by more than 40,000 each day over the past week, and on three days it topped 50,000. Today, confirmed cases in America were at 3,109,500, which is up 61,428. Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the increase could soon top 100,000 per day.

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, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, Kansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma. 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.

Active U.S. COVID-19 cases numbered 2,038,960, and recovered cases have reached 936,249, after adding 17,951. It remains a bad sign that the active case count is so much higher than recovered ones. American coronavirus fatalities have hit 134,291, up by 969. 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. 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.

However, 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.

Cases in Texas and Florida Rise Nearly 10,000 Each

In a sign of how quickly the disease is growing in Texas and Florida, each saw confirmed cases rise by almost 10,000. In Florida, the figure was 9,992, bringing the total to 223,786. In Texas, the increase was by 9,979 to 220,564.

Texas is the second-largest state in America as measured by population, at 28,995,881, which is 8.7% of the national total. Florida’s population is in third place among all states, at 21,477,737, which is 6.4% of the American total.

Confirmed daily case count increases in Florida and Texas are well ahead of that of New York, the hardest-hit state, based on both confirmed cases and deaths. Confirmed cases in New York have risen by less than 1,000 per day for much of the past month. After a brutal run of confirmed case and death increases per day, the New York numbers have dropped sharply.

Brazil Deaths Rise Faster Than America’s

Some evidence indicates that Brazil’s figures could top those of the United States. One sign that this could be true is that total deaths in Brazil rose 1,187 to hit 68,055, while fatal cases in America rose by 969 to 134,291.

Brazil is much smaller than the United States as measured by population. America’s stands at 330,003,177. Brazil’s is 211,769,187. Certainly, based on a confirmed cases count against total population measure, Brazil is already close to the United States.

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