Drive-through coronavirus testing at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y.
Photo: brendan mcdermid/ReutersThe world recorded its highest daily number of new coronavirus cases in almost two weeks, even as the U.S. and a host of other nations relax restrictions that kept businesses closed and people off the streets.
New confirmed infections on Wednesday topped 92,700, the most since April 24 and the fourth-highest daily total ever, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. accounted for more than a quarter of them, around 24,300—an elevated number but much lower than the 36,000 one-day peak it logged in April.
The Latest on the Coronavirus
- Johns Hopkins: U.S. cases top 1.2 million; deaths exceed 73,000.
- Johns Hopkins: World-wide cases pass 3.77 million, deaths top 264,000.
- New Zealand said it is considering a significant loosening of its lockdown.
Other countries reporting daily totals of more than 10,000 included Russia and Brazil, whose outbreaks had seemed mild at first but where the spread of the virus has accelerated sharply.
The surge pushed the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases world-wide past 3.77 million, around a third of them in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins database. Experts caution that official numbers likely understate the extent of the pandemic.
Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering
The continuing spread around the globe underscores the risks many countries face as they start to reopen economies shut down in an attempt to curb transmission of the pathogen. In many cases the measures have helped lower the number of new infections, and reduced the burden on hospitals struggling with a heavy influx of patients with the Covid-19 disease caused by the coronavirus. But the closures have torpedoed economic growth and sent unemployment soaring, making governments anxious to return their economies to a more normal level of operation.
Last week, 3.2 million American workers filed for unemployment benefits, the seventh week the coronavirus has triggered record applications even as the number eases from a late-March peak. Claims have fallen from top levels in nearly every U.S. state as some businesses put workers back on payrolls.
States from Georgia and Ohio to Idaho have let some businesses reopen, although typically with restrictions—such as requiring masks or limiting the number of customers—meant to reduce the danger of virus transmission.
Other states, including hard-hit New York, are studying ways they could limit spread enough to start reopening. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday reported that a study on new hospitalizations in the state showed that, contrary to expectations, most of the people being admitted with coronavirus infections were either retired or unemployed, and were living at home rather than in nursing homes or other facilities.
Authorities in Russia said infection rates were rising there in part because of expanded testing. On Thursday they reported 11,231 new cases, a record daily increase that pushed the national total to 177,160 known infections, surpassing those of France and Germany. Russia’s death toll, rising more slowly, stands at 1,625.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said sampling surveys indicated that about 300,000 of the city’s 12 million people had caught the virus, more than three times the number of its confirmed cases. A nationwide quarantine period runs until Monday, but Mr. Sobyanin said most restrictions would stay in place in Moscow beyond that date, with only industrial and construction companies permitted to reopen.
France’s nationwide lockdown also expires on Monday, and with infection rates declining in recent weeks the government was preparing Thursday to detail steps to open up. Kindergarten and primary school students will return to class and people will be no longer be required to carry an official paper explaining why they are not at home. Each of the country’s 101 departments is being designated red or green, determining when other restrictions may be lifted.
Iran’s health ministry said Thursday that infection rates had stabilized in most parts of the country, despite an overall uptick in the daily count of new cases following a reopening of businesses and lifting of travel restrictions. Iran reported 1,485 new cases Thursday, up from 802 last Saturday. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said most of the newly infected were family members of Covid-19 patients and didn’t require hospitalization.
In Asia, a region with some of the swiftest and most aggressive responses to the pandemic, some governments have sharply curbed the spread—and now are slowly letting their economies return to normal.
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- confirmed cases in the U.S.
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- total deaths in the U.S.
Hong Kong, with no locally transmitted cases in more than two weeks—though there have been some imported infections—has said it would reopen gyms, bars and movie theaters on Friday. The government counts 1,041 cases, well short of its nearly 1,800 cases of SARS in 2002 and 2003, when that epidemic, caused by a different coronavirus, hit the city.
China’s National Health Commission reported eight new cases, only two with symptoms. The South Korean government reported four new confirmed cases, marking four straight days in single digits. Both countries have been slowly lifting curbs on business operations and movements outside the home.
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New Zealand, which reported one new confirmed case and has been keeping its daily count close to that level for the past week, said it is considering a significant loosening of its tight lockdown, with a decision set for Monday. It would allow businesses to restart, public places and schools to reopen and people to travel within the country again, according to a press release from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Japan said it had 109 new confirmed coronavirus cases—the lowest since the end of March. The government recently extended its national state of emergency through the end of May, although that measure doesn’t mandate business shutdowns or travel restrictions, and local governments can only ask that people limit trips outside the home.
Nevertheless, the appeals for people to stay home and businesses to limit hours have dramatically lowered the movement of people in many urban areas such as Tokyo, according to a government website. The government is watching disease-transmission data and will decide whether to relax some of its guidelines early, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said earlier this week.
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Write to Phred Dvorak at phred.dvorak@wsj.com and Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com
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