The United States is facing a sharp increase in the number of Coronavirus infections, as New York City prepares to close its schools, and Russia has set records in the number of infections, while Lebanon has entered a complete lockdown to confront the pandemic.

New York - the American city most affected by the virus during the first wave that swept the country in the spring - witnessed a rise in the daily rate of infections, and exceeded 3%, which is a large percentage for the first time on Friday.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the closure of bars and restaurants at 22:00, starting from Friday, which is a generally accepted measure in a city where closure measures have been gradually lifted, and most of these establishments were closed before midnight.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio - who reopened public schools at the end of last September with a hybrid system - called on parents of students to "prepare" to re-close them on Monday.

The number of daily infections continues to rise in the United States;

It approached 189,000 between Thursday and Friday, a number not far from the record set at the start of the week.

About 1,600 new deaths were also recorded, according to Johns Hopkins University figures, which brought the total number in the country to more than 10.7 million cases of the Covid-19 epidemic, and 244,200 deaths.

As for the number of people infected with Coronavirus who have been admitted to hospitals, it is also the highest since the beginning of its outbreak, with more than 67,000, according to the "Covid Tracking Project".

Stability in Europe

The United States is still by far the country most affected by the virus in terms of the number of deaths, followed by Brazil (164,737), India (128,668), Mexico (97,56) and the United Kingdom (50,928).

But with 284,000 new daily infections recorded, Europe is still the region that records the largest number of new infections, even if it seems that its rate has stabilized (+ 1%) after imposing strict measures and curfews.

Despite signs of the virus’s spread slowing in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel expected the epidemic to continue "throughout the winter season" as a minimum.

Likewise, France - one of the epicentres of the second wave - is witnessing a decrease in the number of injuries, but the government said that it is not appropriate now to consider lifting restrictions on December 1 next, while 95% of intensive care rooms in hospitals are full. The "peak" of this outbreak is reached yet.

In Italy, the situation is getting worse in many regions of the country, and in Naples hospitals are full, and some patients were being treated in their cars, while others were fighting in ambulances.

In Russia, today, Saturday, it recorded a record daily increase of 22,702 new infections, which raises the total number in the country to one million and 903 thousand and 253 injuries.

The authorities also revealed 391 deaths related to the virus in the past 24 hours, which brought the official death toll to 32,834.

Lebanon enters a complete lockdown today until the end of this month to combat the Corona pandemic (Reuters)

The Middle East and China

From this morning, Lebanon entered a state of complete lockdown until the end of this month, as part of efforts to combat the outbreak of the Corona pandemic.

The closure includes public and private institutions with exceptions related to a number of productive sectors, in addition to a daily curfew from five in the afternoon until five in the morning.

This decision comes after hospitals have reached their maximum capacity, and the medical sector is unable to cope with the continued rise in the number of injuries, according to what was said by Minister of Health in the caretaker government, Hamad Hassan.

In Egypt, the Ministry of Health announced on Friday that 224 new injuries and 12 deaths were recorded, compared to 214 injuries and 12 deaths on Thursday.

The injuries in South Africa approached 747 thousand cases, with 2,213 new injuries recorded during the past 24 hours.

As for China, where the virus first appeared, the National Health Committee said today, Saturday, that the mainland recorded 18 new cases of coronavirus yesterday, up from 8 the previous day.

The committee added in a statement that all the new cases were coming from abroad.

The total number of confirmed infections on the mainland with the virus reached 86,325 cases, while the number of deaths remains unchanged at 4,634.