The United States recorded about 69,000 new cases of coronavirus, in a record daily increase for the third day in a row, which forced California authorities to release thousands of prisoners due to the outbreak.
There are more than 3 million confirmed infections within the United States, and 8 states experienced record increases in the number of daily infections on Friday, namely Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin.
Florida - one of the states worst affected by the epidemic - recorded 92 deaths, 11,433 new infections yesterday, as well as 7,000 hospital patients.
More than 48 hospitals in Florida have announced that they can reach maximum capacity in intensive care units.
The Americans have become increasingly divided over several epidemic issues, including reopening schools and businesses and wearing masks in public places.
There is almost universal consensus among health experts that wearing masks is one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of the virus that has killed more than 133,000 Americans.
Prisoners released
For its part, the authorities in the US state of California announced that they would release about 8000 additional prisoners, to limit the spread of the new Corona virus in its overcrowded prisons.
The state's prison administration indicated that these prisoners would be able to demand early release at the end of August, along the lines of 10,000 others who had been released since the start of the health crisis.
"These initiatives aim to ensure the health and safety of prisoners and staff," said director of the department, Ralph Diaz, in a statement.
The announcement, which was praised by supporters of prison reform, came after an increase in cases of the Covid-19 epidemic in San Quentin, one of the oldest prisons in California, where more than a thousand injuries were recorded among prisoners.
"This is one of our greatest concerns at the moment," California Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed in late June, noting that 42% of the approximately 3,500 prisoners in this prison near San Francisco are at risk of injury.
The number of injuries in Saint Quentin prison constitutes about half of those registered in the state prisons, which includes a total of about 113 thousand prisoners.
Injuries
For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced today, Saturday, that it had recorded 463 new infections and two deaths over the past 24 hours.
The ministry added in a statement that 328 new cases of injuries were in the Hebron Governorate, 85 in Jerusalem, 36 in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, 8 in the Bethlehem Governorate, 5 in the Nablus Governorate, and one in the Jenin Governorate.
The ministry stated that 16 of the injured are in intensive care facilities, including 6 who are connected to ventilators.
The total number of active infections with the Corona virus since last March was 5,827, while the number of deaths rose to 32.
The Palestinian government is imposing a closure for the ninth consecutive day in the West Bank to counter the spread of the Corona virus, while allowing pharmacies, bakeries, grocery stores and banks to operate.
In Russia, today, Saturday, 6,611 new cases of the Coronavirus were recorded, bringing the total number in the country to 720,547.
The Corona Virus Crisis Center in the country said that 188 people had died from the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total deaths to 11,205.
Russia said 497,446 of the injured were recovering.
In Spain, confirmed infections reached 253,908 cases as of 7:30 am Saturday, Madrid time, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News.
The data indicated that the deaths in Spain as a result of infection with the virus increased by two cases since the same time on Friday to reach 28,403 cases, and the number of those recovering remained at 150,376.