WASHINGTON (AFP, BLOOMBERG) – The United States on Sunday recorded 55,187 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, Johns Hopkins University reported in its real-time tally, as reported cases and fatalities fell in the states that have been hit particularly hard, including Florida, Arizona, California and Texas.

The US, which leads the world in confirmed coronavirus cases, now has a total caseload of 4,229,624, the Baltimore-based university showed at 8.30pm.

There is an additional of 518 deaths reported, breaking the four-day streak of more than 1,000 deaths a day. The overall death toll stands at 146,909.

Texas reported 5,810 new cases, the smallest increase in two weeks, and down from 6,020 reported the previous day, though reported numbers across the US are often incomplete on weekends.

Another 153 deaths were reported, the lowest since July 21 and also fewer than the 168 reported the previous day, the Department of State Health Services said on its website.

The state now has 381,656 confirmed cases of the virus. The number of fatalities stands at 5,038.

California reported 8,259 positive cases on Sunday, fewer than the 14-day average and the 10,666 reported the day before, according to the state health department’s website.

There have been 453,659 confirmed cases overall.

The number of fatalities increased by 79, lower than the 14-day daily average of 98 and also below the 151 reported the previous day.

Despite the slowdown in Covid-19 cases, some lawmakers in the sprawling Los Angeles County are not willing to take any chances.

Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, California Democrat Karen Bass urged the state government to reissue a stay-at-home order and be “very, very conservative” about reopening”.

“In hindsight, I think that we opened a little too quickly,” said Ms Bass, whose congressional district is in the county.

“If I were in charge of LA County, I would go back to that.”

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has said that another stay-at-home order is an option.

The city has faced a renewed onslaught of the coronavirus, especially among lower-income residents, factories and communities of colour.

Arizona reported 19 more Covid-19 deaths, fewer than a near-record 144 a day earlier.

The state’s death toll is now 3,305.

Reported new cases also slowed to 1,973, a 1.2 per cent rise that is less than the average daily increase of 1.8 per cent over the last week. Total cases are now 162,014.

In Florida, there were 9,344 new virus cases reported on Sunday, a drop from the previous day when it overtook New York to have the second-most infections behind California.

Total cases in the state are now 423,855. Deaths among residents slowed again, to 77 from 124 the day before.

New York reported 536 new cases. Another three people died, fewer than the 10 reported the day before. Hospitalisations remained steady at 646.

At the height of the outbreak in the US, the state’s death toll reached almost 1,000 a day.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said that people visiting from other states with higher infection rates are now the major source of new cases in New York.

He added that investigators have found “blatant disregard” at bars and restaurants downstate and this weekend issued 105 violations.

After a drop in infection rate in the late spring, the US has seen a recent surge in Covid-19 cases, particularly in southern and western states such as California, Texas, Alabama and Florida.

But former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told the CBS news channel on Sunday that there are “unmistakable signs” the pandemic is slowing Texas and Arizona, with Florida and California trends a bit more mixed.

But Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina, along with Washington DC, are “heating up”, he warned.

Gottlieb said a “trifecta of activity” by Republican Governor Doug Ducey in Arizona was having an impact and suggested other states followed suit.

Ducey’s approach includes a mask mandate, shutting bars and movie theatres and limiting the number of people in restaurants.

Gottlieb said the “collective action on the part of businesses” to enforce mask wearing that has been gathering pace would be one way to work around the politicised nature of masks.

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