国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Increasing gatherings, lack of social distancing lead to U.S. COVID-19 cases surg_时事

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Increasing gatherings, lack of social distancing lead to U.S. COVID-19 cases surg

The tally of new cases, based on the newspaper's database, showed that the outbreak was stronger than ever. The elevated numbers are a result of worsening conditions across much of the country, as well as increased testing.

The recent resurgence is concentrated largely in the South and West of the country. States including Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas reported their highest single-day totals on Wednesday.

California, the country's most populous state and the first to implement a state-wide lockdown to combat the coronavirus outbreak, is setting daily records for new cases this week.

Texas, one of the fastest states to ease its shutdown, halted steps to reopen its economy on Thursday after a sharp rise in recent cases.

As the disruptive coronavirus hits the country, there is a silver lining: the growth rate of COVID-19 cases in over a dozen states, including some previous hotspots, is declining, such as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Michigan, according to Zhang.

"This shows that as the infection rate of the population increased, certain protection or immunity has established, which will help slow down the incidence of COVID-19," Zhang noted.

"The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surgings that we're seeing in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona and in other states -- they're not the only ones having difficulty," said Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's top infectious disease expert, on Tuesday.