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More than 22,700 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 482 new deaths were recorded in India over 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections past 744,000 and the death toll to 20,653. The US is also in the grips of a worsening crisis as the number of cases topped 3 million and alarm bells rang in Florida over an impending shortage of intensive care unit beds.

American authorities have reported huge upswings of daily caseloads in roughly two dozen states over the past two weeks – a clear sign that efforts to control transmission of the novel coronavirus have failed in large swaths of the country.

The biggest jumps occurred in Texas and California, the two largest states, with more than 10,000 each and in Texas alone, the number of hospitalised patients more than doubled in just two weeks.

A private hospital in Brunswick, northern Melbourne, has been closed after four patients and a staff member tested positive for the virus, Victoria’s Department of Health confirmed.

The country’s second most populous state recorded 134 new virus cases overnight, as total infections rose to 2,942.

A total of 75 infections are related to the nine public housing tower blocks which have been put on lockdown.

The panic over a second wave of the disease comes as a Reuters tally on Wednesday put the global number of cases at 11.85 million and the death count at 542,706 across more than 219 countries.

As Boris Johnson moved to further lift lockdown restrictions last weekend by allowing pubs to reopen, a number of joints have had to backtrack after drinkers tested positive for coronavirus.

One so-called “super spreader” forced a pub, a vape bar and an Indian restaurant to shut after he enjoyed a night out in Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset on Saturday before being diagnosed with COVID-19.

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