Coronavirus live news: cases rising in 37 US states as Brazil infections near 1.5m | World news

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has praised what he described as his country’s “shining success” in holding off the new coronavirus, according to state-run KCNA news agency Friday.

The head of the hermetic totalitarian state spoke at a Worker’s Party politburo meeting on Thursday discussing the impact of the virus, AFP reports, six months after North Korea closed borders and put thousands into isolation.

The reclusive leader praised the “shining success achieved by the far-sighted leadership of the Party Central Committee and a high sense of voluntary spirit displayed by all people who move as one on orders of the Party Central Committee,” KCNA continued.

Pyongyang has not confirmed a single case of the deadly disease that swept the world after first emerging in neighbouring China, but has imposed strict rules, including closing its borders and schools, and putting thousands of its people into isolation.

Analysts say the North is unlikely to have avoided infections from the virus, and that its ramshackle health system could struggle to cope with a major outbreak.

Last month a United Nations rights expert warned food insecurity is deepening and some people are “starving” as a result of North Korea’s attempts to ward off any outbreak, particularly closing borders.

The governor of Texas has ordered that face coverings must be worn in public across most of the state, in a dramatic ramping up of efforts to control a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

The move marks a major reversal for Republican Greg Abbott, who had pushed Texas’s aggressive reopening of the state economy in May, and had previously said the government could not order individuals to wear masks. His prior virus-related orders had undercut efforts by local governments to enforce mask requirements.

But faced with rising numbers of newly confirmed cases of the Covid-19 virus and a wave of hospitalizations, Abbott changed course with Thursday’s mask order. It requires “all Texans to wear a face covering over the nose and mouth in public spaces in counties with 20 or more positive Covid-19 cases, with few exceptions”.

There are 10,940,071 known coronavirus infections worldwide.

The number of deaths from coronavirus worldwide currently stands at 519,852, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US has 128,643 fatalities, the highest of any country, followed by 61,884 in Brazil and 43,991 in the UK.

In case you missed it: Florida shattered records on Thursday when it reported over 10,000 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase in the state since the pandemic started, according to a Reuters tally.

Outbreaks in Texas, California, Florida and Arizona have sent cases rising at rates not seen since April.

More than 2.7 million businesses could go under and 8.5 million jobs be lost in Latin America due to the coronavirus crisis, the UN’s economic commission for the region predicts.

Shops and hotels and restaurants, many of which are small and medium sized businesses, will be hardest hit, it says.

The death toll in Brazil reached 61,884, up from 60,632 yesterday, according to the country’s health ministry. That is a daily increase of 1,252.

Brazil has 1,496,858 confirmed cases of the virus, up 48,105 from 1,448,753 yesterday.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be with you for the next few hours. A reminder that you can get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan and via email: [email protected].

In the US, 37 states are seeing an increase in coronavirus cases, according to a Reuters analysis. Florida, among the states hardest hit by the June surge, reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, its largest spike so far and more new daily cases than any European country had at the height of their outbreaks.

California, another epicenter, saw positive tests climb 37% with hospitalisations up 56% over the past two weeks.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who has previously resisted calls to make face masks mandatory, on Thursday ordered them to be worn in all counties with over 20 coronavirus cases.

Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:

• Global deaths near 520,000. The number of deaths from coronavirus worldwide currently stands at 518,121, according to Johns Hopkins University. The US has 128,643 fatalities, the highest of any country, followed by 61,884 in Brazil and 43,991 in the UK. There are 10,935,964 cases worldwide.
• US vice president Mike Pence said he fully supports the Florida governor’s efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak, even as the state earlier reported the biggest one-day increase in cases since the pandemic started.“We fully support your prudent steps in working to slow the spread and the rising cases that are impacting Florida today,” Pence said at a media briefing in Tampa, Florida, with the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis.
• Brazil’s cases are nearing 1.5m. The death toll in Brazil reached 61,884, up from 60,632 yesterday, according to the country’s health ministry. That is a daily increase of 1,252.Brazil has 1,496,858 confirmed cases of the virus, up from 1,448,753 yesterday.
• Rapper Vanilla Ice has cooled off plans for a concert in Texas, after taking considerable heat for an event that sought to gather hundreds of fans in one of the nation’s coronavirus hotspots.He had been scheduled to play a lakeside show just outside Austin on Friday, but has announced it is being postponed.
• Former Republican presidential candidate tests positive for Covid-19. Herman Cain, a 2012 Republican presidential candidate, has been diagnosed with coronavirus and admitted to hospital, according to a statement on his Twitter feed. He attended last month’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally for President Donald Trump, supporting his fellow Republican at an event where many attendees crowded close together without wearing face masks to prevent the spread of the virus.
• Florida records over 10,000 new cases in a day. Florida shattered records on Thursday when it reported over 10,000 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase in the state since the pandemic started, according to a Reuters tally.
• Outbreaks in Texas, California, Florida and Arizona have sent cases rising at rates not seen since April. Trump says jobs report proves US economy ‘roaring back’. The US president, Donald Trump, celebrated a government report showing the country gained 4.8m jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 11.1% last month, when states began allowing businesses to reopen from strict shutdowns aimed at containing the coronavirus pandemic. “Today’s announcement proves that our economy is roaring back,” Trump said, rattling off different sectors that saw job gains according to the monthly report.
• Kansas makes face masks mandatory after spike in cases. Kansas has followed several other states in requiring face coverings, most recently Indiana. Kansas had a 46.1% spike in coronavirus infections last week. Meanwhile, California governor Gavin Newsom said cases have jumped to 6.9% over the past week. Coronavirus cases in Sweden surpass 70,000 after another 947 recorded
• Sweden’s number of confirmed Covid-19 crossed the 70,000 mark on Thursday, while deaths rose by 41 to 5,411, health agency statistics showed. Sweden recorded 947 new cases to put the total at 70,639. Expanded testing has seen daily new cases soar over the past month, eclipsing rates elsewhere in the European Union, but deaths and hospitalisations have tumbled from peaks in April.
• A further 14 deaths were reported in France. The number of deaths in France from Covid-19 has risen by 14 from the previous day to 29,875, the country’s health department said. The number of people in hospital fell by 188 to 8,148 and the number of people in intensive care units fell by nine to 573, with both numbers continuing weeks-long downtrends.
• The Swiss government released a list of 29 restricted countries. The Swiss government has published a list of 29 restricted countries including the US, Russia, Brazil and Sweden, from which visitors entering the country must go into isolation. From 6 July, travellers to Switzerland who have spent time in the previous 14 days in countries designated as at high risk of infection will have to register with the Swiss authorities immediately on arrival and then go into quarantine for 10 days.