Coronavirus: United States soars past 12 million cases as resurgence gains strength

The virus has spread rapidly in recent weeks, as the country hit 10 million cases on November 9 and the 11 million mark November 15. More than 255,000 people in the US have died from Covid-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The US has recorded more cases and deaths than any other country. India, home to an estimated 1.3 billion people, has tallied 9 million cases and 130,000 deaths. Brazil has reported 6 million cases and 168,000 deaths.

With health experts deeply afraid Thanksgiving travel and holiday gatherings next week will fuel the spread of the virus, many states and cities are imposing near-lockdowns or other restrictions. California ordered a 10pm to 5am curfew starting Saturday, covering 94 per cent of the state’s 40 million residents.

The Texas border county of El Paso, where more than 300 people have died from Covid-19 since October, is advertising jobs for morgue workers capable of lifting bodies weighing 79 kilograms (175 pounds) or more. Officials are offering more than US$27 an hour for work described as not only physically arduous but “emotionally taxing as well.”

The county had already begun paying jail inmates US$2 an hour to help move corpses and has ordered at least 10 refrigerated trucks as morgues run out of room.

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott has ruled out another shutdown and singled out El Paso county leaders for not enforcing restrictions already in place. The state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, likened the county’s chief administrator to a “tyrant” after Paxton won an appeals court ruling blocking local leaders from shutting down gyms and other non-essential businesses.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, also a Republican, failed to persuade leaders of the GOP-controlled legislature to reject a bill that would limit his administration’s power to deal with the crisis.