According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, the number of global cases rose 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. 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 to 1,839,850, up 35,512. The 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 71,469, up 945. That is a larger increase for the day than the one in the United States, where deaths rose to 136,621, up 668. Some experts believe that the confirmed case and death counts in Brazil will top those of the United States, though the new U.S. surge has made that much less likely.

The next two hardest-hit nations are India where confirmed cases hit 853,211 up by 29,288. Deaths are 22,718, up by 565. Russia’s confirmed cases are 727,162 up 6,615. Deaths in Russian are at 11,335, up 130. The relatively low increases reported in Russia have caused concerns that the central government’s data is not entirely accurate.

The U.S. total 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 in surge in confirmed case count has become much worse during the past several days, as the disease moved from the badly battered Northeast, Michigan, and Illinois to states in the south and west. The U.S. confirmed cases rose by 52,775, which brought the number to 3,290,994.

Active cases worldwide are now reported to be 5,056,475. These active cases 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 1.7 million, one of the few good signs as the pandemic’s spread continues.

Global fatal cases 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 in the US has been greater than 50,000 most days in the past week, and by 60,000 on two days. Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that the increase could soon top 100,000 per day, and this week 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 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 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, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Illinois. Indeed, confirmed cases in Illinois have reached 151,767, up 1,317. Fatal cases in the Midwestern state rose to 7,144, up 25. That is a significant increase compared to most days over the past three weeks.

Active U.S. COVID-19 cases numbered 2,184,028 and recovered cases have reached 970,345, up 6,933. It is worrisome that the active case count is so much higher than the recovered ones.

As mentioned above, American coronavirus fatalities have hit 136,621, up 668, 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 have started to accelerate in some states which were hit late. Florida posted a record 120 deaths three days ago. Deaths in Florida rose to 4,197, up by 95. Deaths in Texas rose 99 to 3,112. The increase in deaths in both states has picked up significantly.

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

Los Angeles County Surge

Los Angeles County is the largest county in the U.S. as measured by population at 10,105,518. That is nearly twice the size of the second-largest which is Cook County, home of Chicago, at 5,180,493.

Los Angeles County contains the City of Los Angeles which has a population of 3,990,456 and 13 other cities with populations above 100,000.

Los Angeles confirmed cases are 127,503, up 2,441. That is over four times the increase in New York State. Deaths in Los Angeles county reached 3,738, up 49. The county is at the center of the California increase of confirmed cases of 312,344, up 8,047. Deaths in the nation’s largest state by population rose to 6,945, up by 94.

Italy’s Increases Slow Considerably

In the early weeks of the spread of the pandemic, Italy was among the hardest-hit nations in the world. The entire northern part of the nation had to be locked down to slow the spread of the disease.

The situation in Italy has changed considerably in the last few weeks. Today, confirmed cases rose only 242,827, up 188. Active cases are 13,303. Recovered cases are considerably above that at 13,303. Deaths rose to 34,945, an increase of 7

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