U.S. breaks coronavirus world record for 5th day, Oklahoma's Governor Stitt infected

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt tests positive for coronavirus

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt tests positive for coronavirus

Oklahoma’s governor Kevin Stitt said he was diagnosed with coronavirus on Wednesday, becoming one of the highest elected U.S. politicians to test positive for the disease.

The disclosure of his virus status comes as the U.S. broke the world record for the most single day cases, for the fifth day in a row.

Over 65,000 cases were reported across the country on Wednesday, along with 1,413 deaths, taking the death toll to 138,000.

Worldometers.info reported that the cases on Wednesday reached a world record 70,914.

It also estimated a death toll of 140,105.

Kevin Stitt disclosure also coincided with the explosion in coronavirus infections in his state and neighbouring Texas, for a second straight day.

Texas, where the tally of known infections jumped by an all-time high of 10,791 cases statewide during the past 24 hours, also reported a record 110 additional COVID-19 deaths, its fourth such daily benchmark this month.

But Oklahoma, which reported a daily record of 1,075 cases, became a focal point of the resurgent coronavirus outbreak after its governor, Kevin Stitt, announced he had tested positive.

Stitt, a Republican who attended President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa nearly three weeks ago, had faced a backlash in recent days.

This was after he posted a photo on Twitter showing himself and two of his children at a crowded restaurant, even as state health authorities urged social distancing.

“I got tested yesterday for COVID-19, and the results came back positive,” Stitt, 47, said in a video conference call with reporters.

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“I feel fine, really, I mean you might say I’m asymptomatic or just slightly kind of a little bit achy.”

Stitt is one of a number of elected leaders infected since the novel coronavirus arrived in the United States this year.

Others include U.S. Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, and about a half-dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives from both parties.

Stitt’s diagnosis comes amid an upswing in COVID-19 cases across the American South and West after state and local officials started loosening economic and social restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

Across the country, new cases have been averaging around 60,000 a day.

Twenty-eight states have registered record daily increases in cases this month, many of them more than once, and 11 states have reported a greater number of deaths for a single day than ever before.

Moreover, the rate of people testing positive among all those who are screened has exceeded 5% – a level above which health experts say is concerning – and was trending upward in some two dozen states over the past two weeks, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

Arizona has registered the highest positivity rate, with nearly a quarter of everyone tested statewide found to be infected, followed by Florida at nearly 19%, South Carolina at 18% and Texas and Alabama each at 17%.

Nationally, the total number of cases surpassed 3.5 million, by far the highest number of any country in the world, and more than 138,000 Americans have died from the highly contagious respiratory illness to date.

Since Trump’s June 20 campaign rally at an indoor arena in Tulsa, attended by several thousand people against the advice of public health officials, coronavirus cases in the surrounding county have risen to over 5,200 – a 219% increase over the last four weeks, according to a Reuters analysis.

Infections in several other Oklahoma counties have likewise doubled, tripled or even quadrupled over the same period. Eight staff on Trump’s campaign tested positive around the time of the Tulsa event.

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