As the coronavirus pandemic pushes near its seventh month of global infection, outbreaks around the world have evolved to be more widespread over isolated epicenters. From the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China, COVID-19 has moved to devastating spreads in Iran, Italy, Spain and New York City. Now the virus has spread more pervasively into widespread zones in Africa, South America and Asia, while cases have plateaued relatively in Europe. In the Americas, Brazil has become the second country to surpass 1 million confirmed cases on Friday, only second to the United States at 2.2 million and still up-tickling alarmingly fast in some states.
The World Health Organization warned the nations of the world on Friday that the pandemic is continuing to report record daily cases, with Thursday posting a fresh high of more than 150,000 globally. The agency urged nations to continue to social distance and wear masks when in public as well as tracing and isolating new cases.
"The world is in a new and dangerous phase," W.H.O. Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated during a press conference on Friday. "Many people are understandably fed up with being at home. Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and their economies. But the virus is still spreading fast. It is still deadly, and most people are still susceptible."
Total Global Cases: Over 8.7 Million
Total Deaths: Over 462,000
Total Recovered: Over 4.62 Million
Re-Closing After Re-opening
Keeping with its earlier warning that it would halt reopening stores at risk, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced on Friday that it will be temporarily closing stores in states that have seen spikes in new coronavirus cases in recent weeks. Like most businesses during the pandemic, Apple had closed all of its brick-and-mortar operations in March. The company had begun reopening its locations across the United States in May.
The closures will be taking place at six locations in Arizona, two in Florida, two in North Carolina, and one in South Carolina.
"Due to currency COVID-19 condition in some of the communities we serve, we are temporarily closing stores in these areas. We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to have our teams and customers back as soon as possible," an Apple spokesperson stated, reported by CNBC.
Due to the steady rise in cases in states throughout the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.) has forecasted that the daily number of new deaths is going to accelerate upward in the next four weeks when compared to last month. The agency noted nine states were death rates are expected to notably increase: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Utah. The C.D.C.'s national ensemble forecasts for total deaths in the United States is now set to be in the range of 129,000 to 145,000 by mid-July.