The world's leading power on Thursday July 2 became the most mourning country on the planet with 128,677 deaths linked to Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. As for cases of contamination, they pass the bar of 55,000 new detections in a single day in the United States, according to a count made by Reuters on the official database. It is the largest daily report of coronavirus cases reported worldwide since the start of the pandemic.

An outbreak of new infections has been reported in the past week across the country, shining a spotlight on President Donald Trump's handling of the health crisis and prompting governors to suspend or backtrack in their decontainment plans.

According to the data collected Thursday evening, 55,274 new cases of contamination were identified in the United States, exceeding the daily world record established by Brazil on June 19 (54,771 cases). Despite the increase, Donald Trump praised the quality of the country's coronavirus screening campaign, and attributed the increase in cases to it.

California, Florida and Texas : outbreak of Covid-19 cases

"There is an increase in cases of coronavirus because our tests are massive and excellent, much better than in any other country," said the White House tenant on Twitter. "This is great news and, even better, the death rate is falling," added the head of state.

New infections have soared in 37 of the 50 US states, including Florida, which has reported more than 10,000 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours.

Just a fortnight ago, an average of 22,000 new cases were reported daily in the United States. According to an analysis of official data by Reuters, the number of contamination cases more than doubled in June in fourteen American states, including California, Florida and Texas.

Wearing a mask : a political issue 

Anthony Fauci, a leading national expert on infectious diseases, warned this week that the number of new daily cases could reach the 100,000 threshold if no action was taken at the national level to slow the spread of the virus.

The governor of Texas, where nearly 8,000 additional cases have been reported, made a turnaround on Thursday by ordering the wearing of the mask in public space.

In California, bars, restaurants and cinemas have been forced to close their doors.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has said that he and Donald Trump support the decision of some governors to suspend deconfinement, but added that he does not see the need for a federal directive on the wearing of masks.

Making it mandatory to wear a mask is not an easy task in the United States, where this attribute, or its absence, has often become a political sign. The most fervent supporters of Donald Trump rarely wear them. Others invoke their individual freedom. A security guard was even shot for asking a customer to cover his face before entering a store.

Social networks Facebook and Twitter have said they will recommend their American users to wear the mask.

With AFP and Reuters

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