US hits record 39,000 coronavirus cases in one day: Live | News

• •  The United States has seen a major resurgence in coronavirus cases as Texas, Florida and California all reported record increases.

 

• • Coronavirus hospitalisations and caseloads have reached new highs in more than half a dozen states in the US, with newly confirmed cases nationwide back near their peak level of two months ago.

 

• • The number of cases worldwide is expected to reach 10 million next week, the World Health Organization has said, warning that the virus has yet to peak in the Americas.

 

• • More than 9.4 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, more than 4.7 million have recovered, and more than 482,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

 

Here are the latest updates:

Thursday, June 25

07:25 GMT – Afghanistan uses green stimulus to hire lockdown jobless, boost Kabul’s water supply

Zaker Hussain Zaheri was a cook in Afghanistan’s capital who lost his job in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, he digs trenches to capture rainwater and snowmelt on a mountain on the outskirts of Kabul, as the city grapples with both a water and health crisis.

Lockdown measures to curb the spread of the disease have taken their toll on Afghanistan’s economy, so the government is employing more than 40,000 jobless workers to rehabilitate groundwater supplies for its fast-growing capital.

07:05 GMT- US records largest yet daily coronavirus cases at nearly 39,000

The United States has seen a major surge in coronavirus cases, weeks after many areas reopened their economies.

Seven states, mainly in the south and west, and including Texas, California and Arizona, reported record increases on Wednesday with the nationwide tally rising by more than 38,600.

Texas, Florida and California all reported record increases, with 7,100, 5,550 and 5,510 new cases, respectively, over the preceding 24 hours.

06:40 GMT – Senegal president self-quarantines after contact with COVID-19 case

Senegalese President Macky Sall is quarantining for two weeks after coming into contact with someone who has since tested positive for the coronavirus, state television said.

The measure is precautionary as an initial COVID-19 test of Sall has come back negative, it said.

06:15 GMT – Lufthansa shares soar after major shareholder backs bailout plan

Lufthansa shares jumped more than 27 percent in early trade after billionaire investor Heinz Hermann Thiele endorsed a 9 billion euro ($10.12 billion) government bailout to rescue the carrier hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

“I will vote for the proposal,” Thiele, who owns a 15.5 percent stake in Lufthansa, told Frankfurter Allgemeine daily on Wednesday.

His endorsement amounted to a respite for the airline after fears had swirled that he might veto the proposed package, which would see Germany buy 20 percent of the company.

05:34 GMT – Cases in Pakistan continue to decline

Coronavirus testing numbers in Pakistan – one of the countries with the highest rate of spread of the infection currently – are continuing to drop, with just 21,835 tests conducted on Wednesday.

Of those, 4,044 patients tested positive, according to government data, a test-positive rate of 18.5 percent. Countrywide cases rose on Wednesday to 192,970 cases, according to the data. The country also recorded its second-highest number of deaths in a single day on Wednesday, with 148 patients dying, taking the overall death toll to 3,978, according to government data.

The drop in testing is driven by significant decreases in daily testing in Sindh and Punjab provinces respectively, the country’s two most populous regions. In Sindh, officials told Al Jazeera the drop in testing was due to a “shortage of staff” at labs causing a backlog.

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Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

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04:45 GMT – Hong Kong announces coronavirus death

A 55-year-old male coronavirus patient (confirmed case No 1180) admitted to hospital in Hong Kong in late May has died early on Thursday morning, a spokesman for the Princess Margaret Hospital said

The hospital said the man had suffered a stroke in the Philippines and was airlifted back to Hong Kong.

Seven people have now died from COVID-19 in the territory.

03:50 GMT – ‘We cannot overstate the shame’: ASEAN MPs on boat pushbacks

A group of MPs from Southeast Asia are calling on leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to do more to help refugees and migrants, particularly Rohingya, taking boats across the Indian Ocean.

The open letter signed by Charles Santiago, chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), urged ASEAN leaders to respect vulnerable communities and curb hateful rhetoric directed at refugees and migrants during the coronavirus epidemic.

Malaysia detained 269 Rohingya on a damaged boat earlier this month, and media reported this week that a boat carrying 300 people had been turned away. APHR said ASEAN countries needed to work with Myanmar to end the Rohingya crisis and “organise urgent collective search and rescue operations for boats carrying Rohingya refugees and to organise for their proper disembarkation.

“We cannot overstate the shame that falls upon us collectively when our governments choose to push people back to die at sea.”

03:20 GMT – More Qantas staff to lose jobs as a result of coronavirus

Australian airline Qantas is firing at least 6,000 people – 20 percent of its workforce – as part of a series of drastic measures to deal with the impact of the coronavirus,

Qantas also plans to ground 100 aircraft for as long as 12 months, and some for longer, as well as retire its six remaining Boeing 747 planes immediately, six months ahead of schedule.

You can read more on that story from our business team here.

03:05 GMT – Beijing increases testing capacity to keep on top of cases

Beijing has increased daily nucleic acid testing capacity to more than 300,000 samples a day, compared with about 40,000 previously, according to state media.

Authorities in the Chinese capital stepped up testing after a spike in cases linked to the main wholesale food market.

Mainland China on Thursday confirmed 19 new cases of COVID-19, 13 of them in Beijing.

 

Beijing increases daily nucleic acid testing capacity to over 300,000 samples to better curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. https://t.co/qdDq1Nw040 pic.twitter.com/pPLau7IwRh

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) June 25, 2020

03:00 GMT – Disneyland delays reopening after California cases surge

Disneyland in the US state of California, which has been closed since the middle of March, has delayed plans to reopen.

The resort was due to open again on July 17, but Disney officials say they will not have time to prepare since the state government will only release operating guidelines on July 4.

Disneyland is the world’s second-most-popular theme park.

02:10 GMT – Australia posts biggest one-day rise in cases in two months

More on the situation in Australia following the announcement that troops will be sent to Melbourne, the country’s second-biggest city and the capital of Victoria state.

The state reported 33 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, the ninth day of double-digit increases.

The country as a whole has recorded more than 7,500 cases of the disease but, with the outbreak seemingly under control, it had eased most restrictions. It has recorded 104 deaths, the latest an 85-year-old man who died in April but has now been confirmed to have had the disease.

02:05 GMT – South Korea cases ease

South Korea’s latest coronavirus data suggests it is getting a grip on the clusters that have emerged in Seoul in recent weeks.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said this morning the country had recorded 28 new cases, 23 of them local infections. That is a decrease from Wednesday’s 51 cases and Tuesday’s 46.

Most clusters are linked to delivery firms and small churches.

00:30 GMT – Australian troops head to Victoria to tackle outbreak spike

Australia’s military is to send 1,000 troops to Melbourne to tackle new coronavirus clusters that have emerged in the capital of Victoria state, which has recorded almost 150 new infections during the past week.

Up to 850 Australian Defence Force personnel will help monitor returned international travellers in hotel quarantine while about 200 others will provide logistical and medical support to COVID-19 testing facilities, she said.

Separately, Victoria premier Dan Andrews said the state was launching a “suburban testing blitz” targeting areas identified as hotspots to get on top of the outbreak.

 

Statement from the Premier on the Suburban Testing Blitz: pic.twitter.com/83Le7IFeW2

— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) June 25, 2020

00:15 GMT – Japan’s izakaya pub culture suffers during COVID

Japanese are being more careful about going out for after-dinner drinks, and that is harming the pubs, known as “izakayas” and known for cheap drinks, tasty food, and a cosy atmosphere. Some are tiny, with only a few seats.

Reuters says izakayas are now facing an “existential crisis” as people work from home and avoid indoor venues.

“If drinking out isn’t considered welcome, izakayas will go under,” Hitoshi Yaosaka, who owns 10 pubs in Tokyo and has seen business return to only a third of pre-COVID levels. “There’s a pretty good chance Japan’s izakaya culture will die down.”

00:00 GMT – States in northeastern US impose quarantines on travellers from eight states

The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have ordered travellers from eight other states to quarantine for 14 days on arrival as the epidemic in the US gathers momentum.

The order was “the smart thing to do”, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told the media.

The quarantine applies to people arriving from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, including northeastern residents returning from those areas. It will be enforced with fines that will rise for repeat offenders.

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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Read all the updates from yesterday (June 24) here.