VietJoy

The northeastern U.S. state of New York, which bore the initial brunt of the novel coronavirus pandemic, is requiring visitors from eight states to enter into a two-week quarantine period.

The order announced Wednesday by New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo applies to residents of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, all of which have reported a rising number of new cases in recent weeks. Cuomo was joined by video conference by fellow Democrats Ned Lamont and Phil Murphy, governors of the neighboring states of Connecticut and New Jersey, which are duplicating New York’s quarantine requirements.

The tri-state quarantine mandate was issued the same day the United States reported more than 36,000 new COVID-19 infections, the highest one-day number of new cases since late April. The bulk of the new infections stretch across the nation, from Florida in the southeast, through the southwest including Arizona and Texas and into the western state of California.

Disney delays

Several states reported their highest number of coronavirus hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic in March, including Texas, which recorded over 5,000 total new cases, including over 4,000 hospitalizations, and California, which posted a staggering 7,000 total new cases. The soaring rates of infections in California has prompted the Disney entertainment giant to postpone the planned reopening of its popular Disneyland and Disney California Adventure theme parks, which were scheduled for July 17, the 65th anniversary Disneyland’s opening.

The company said it will wait until state officials issue its theme park reopening guidelines, which will occur sometime after July 4.

Disneyland’s sister theme park, Florida-based Walt Disney World, which is also slated to reopen next month, will host the National Basketball Association when it resumes its regular season. But those plans were overshadowed when three NBA players, Malcolm Brogdon of the Indiana Pacers and Jabari Parker and Alex Len of the Sacramento Kings, announced they had tested positive for the coronavirus. The trio’s positive results came as part of the mandatory testing for the 22 teams that will participate in the resumed season that is set to tipoff on July 30.

The United States leads the world in both total number of infections with more than 2.3 million cases, about one-fourth of all cases, and nearly 122,000 deaths as of early Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.

Latin America has emerged as the world’s newest epicenter for COVID-19 with the regional death toll surpassing 100,000 with more than half, 54,000, in Brazil.

10 million cases

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the number of coronavirus cases throughout the world could reach 10 million next week, a sharp increase from the 9.3 million cases, including over 482,000 deaths, currently reported.

WHO emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan said Wednesday the pandemic for many countries in the Americas still has not peaked, and that the outbreak in the region was "still intense," particularly in Central and South America.

Ryan said many countries in the Americas have seen increases in cases in the last week ranging between 25 percent and 50 percent.

Tedros said the 10 million milestone projected for next week is “a sober reminder that even as we continue our research into vaccines and therapeutics, we have an urgent responsibility to do with the tools we have now to suppress transmission and save lives.”