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Europe, US reel as coronavirus infections surge at record pace

Published:Thursday | October 15, 2020 | 5:04 PM
Medical staff takes a swab as she tests a boy for COVID-19 at a drive-through at the San Paolo hospital, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, October 15, 2020. Coronavirus infections are surging again in the region of northern Italy where the pandemic first took hold in Europe, renewing pressure on hospitals and health care workers. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Coronavirus cases around the world have climbed to all-time highs of more than 330,000 per day as the scourge comes storming back across Europe and spreads with renewed speed in the United States, forcing many places to reimpose tough restrictions eased just months ago.

Well after Europe seemed to have largely tamed the virus that proved so lethal last spring, newly confirmed infections are reaching unprecedented levels in Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Poland.

Most of the rest of the continent is seeing similar danger signs.

France announced a 9:00 p.m. curfew in Paris and other big cities.

Londoners face new restrictions on meeting with people indoors.

The Netherlands closed bars and restaurants this week.

The Czech Republic and Northern Ireland shut schools.

Poland limited restaurant hours and closed gyms and pools.

In the United States, new cases per day are on the rise in 44 states, with many of the biggest surges in the Midwest and Great Plains, where resistance to masks and other precautions has been running high and the virus has often been seen as just a big-city problem.

Deaths per day are climbing in 30 states.

New cases in the US have risen over the past two weeks from about 40,000 per day on average to more than 52,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Cases peaked in the U.S. over the summer at nearly 70,000 a day.

Deaths were relatively stable over the past two weeks, at around 720 a day.

That is well below the US peak of over 2,200 dead per day in late April.

Worldwide, deaths have fallen slightly in recent weeks to about 5,200 a day, down from a peak of around 7,000 in April.

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