Reuters News Now

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Morgues fill up in Texas and Arizona
The United States shattered its daily record for coronavirus infections on Thursday, reporting more than 77,000 new cases as the number of deaths in a 24-hour period rose by nearly 1,000, according to a Reuters tally. The loss of 969 lives was the biggest increase since June 10, with Florida, South Carolina and Texas all reporting their biggest one-day spikes on Thursday. More than 138,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, a toll that experts warn will likely surge following recent record spikes in case numbers and an alarming rise in hospitalizations in many states.

Track the spread of the virus with this state-by-state and county map.

Third country to reach 1 million cases
India became the third country in the world to record more than 1 million coronavirus cases, behind only the United States and Brazil, as infections spread further out into the countryside and smaller towns. For India’s population of around 1.3 billion, experts say a million cases is still low and the number will rise significantly in the coming months as testing is expanded. The last four months of the pandemic sweeping India have exposed severe gaps in the country’s healthcare system, which is one of the most poorly funded and has for years lacked enough doctors or hospital beds.

‘The stakes couldn’t be higher’
European Union leaders met for tense summit talks on a multi-billion-euro plan to breathe life into their economies, their first face-to-face meeting since the coronavirus pandemic plunged the bloc into its latest crisis. The 27 leaders, all masked up, greeted each other with elbow bumps rather than their customary cheek kisses and handshakes, and there were birthday gifts for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa. But their display of bonhomie came after weeks of cross-continent quarrelling over the scale and scope of a joint rescue fund.

Floods maroon PPE
Large parts of China were reeling from the worst floods in decades, as disruption mounted for supply chains, including of personal protective equipment, vital in the fight against the coronavirus. The summer rainy season brings floods to China almost every year, but the impact of the disruption they cause is being felt further afield as Chinese goods become more important in global supply chains for various items, including PPE. “It’s just creating another major roadblock here in terms of PPE getting into the United States - it is the worst of times for it to happen but that’s what we’re dealing with right now,” said Michael Einhorn, president of Dealmed, a U.S. medical supply distributor, which sources disposable lab coats and other products from Wuhan and nearby regions.

20-minute blood test
Researchers in Australia have devised a test that can determine the coronavirus infection in about 20 minutes using blood samples in what they say is a world-first breakthrough. The researchers at Monash University said their test can determine if someone is currently infected and if they have been infected in the past.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Bad debt, Qiagen, Lawyers, Daimler. Melbourne lawyers demonstrate the perils of office work. Also, Daimler gets a surprise cash boost. Catch up with a daily column on pandemic-related insights.

Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

We need your help to tell these stories. Our news organization wants to capture the full scope of what’s happening and how we got here by drawing on a wide variety of sources. Here’s a look at our coverage.

Are you a government employee or contractor involved in coronavirus testing or the wider public health response? Are you a doctor, nurse or health worker caring for patients? Have you worked on similar outbreaks in the past? Has the disease known as COVID-19 personally affected you or your family? Are you aware of new problems that are about to emerge, such as critical supply shortages?

We need your tips, firsthand accounts, relevant documents or expert knowledge. Please contact us at coronavirus@reuters.com.

We prefer tips from named sources, but if you’d rather remain anonymous, you can submit a confidential news tip. Here’s how.

Emerging from Lockdown

Mississippi amid protests and a pandemic: James Meredith, a civil rights pioneer, 87, forced Ole Miss to integrate nearly 60 years ago. He later defied death when he was gunned down by a white supremacist. Now, he and his wife live in a COVID-19 hotspot but they want to be out to witness change.

Former ICE officials and immigration attorneys say the agency regularly transfers people in custody for myriad reasons, including: bed space, preparing migrants for deportation, and security reasons. With the pandemic still raging in the United States, lawmakers have called on ICE to halt the practice.

U.S.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is facing pressure from contending groups inside his party as he prepares to interview a shortlist of women for the most important hire of his political career: his running mate. Biden, who committed to choosing a woman for the job he held for eight years under President Barack Obama, said this week he expected the background vetting process to conclude around July 24. He would then interview each finalist before making a decision, expected by early August.

Twitter disclosed late that hackers targeted about 130 accounts during the cyber attack this week, an incident in which profiles of many prominent personalities and organizations were compromised. Hackers had accessed Twitter’s internal systems to hijack some of the platform’s top voices including U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former U.S. President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk and used them to solicit digital currency.

World

For the second time in two weeks, the United States has deployed two aircraft carriers to the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy said on Friday, as China and the United States accuse each other of stoking tensions in the region. The USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan carried out operations and military exercises in the contested waterway between July 4 and July 6, and returned to the region, according to a U.S. Navy statement.

Taiwan officials in Hong Kong have been told their visas will not be renewed if they don’t sign a document supporting Beijing’s claim to Taiwan under its “one China” policy, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The Trump administration is considering banning travel to the United States by all members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families, a person familiar with the matter said, an idea that China dismissed as absurd.