Florida surpassed New York over the weekend as the state with the second-most coronavirus cases in the US, as more than 9,300 new cases were reported in the Sunshine State on Sunday, accompanied by an additional 78 new deaths. Florida’s 423,855 coronavirus cases as of Sunday were surpassed only by California’s 453,659 cases.

With 39.5 million residents, California has almost double the population of Florida’s 21.4 million inhabitants. California is the nation’s most populous state, followed by Texas, Florida and New York. New York, once the epicentre of the virus in the US, had 411,736 coronavirus cases. The state has 19.4 million residents.

Iran reported 216 fatalities and 2,333 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 15,700 from 291,172 known cases. The level of infection is “red” over most of Iran, as one in five deaths in the country is linked to Covid-19, Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said on state TV.

Iraq plans to impose a 10-day curfew from the end of this month in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus during the Islamic Eid holidays. The curfew will start on July 30 and the government will review the situation at the end of the holidays. Iraq has been reporting coronavirus cases of over 2,000 a day and the country’s total number of infections is above 100,000 so far.

Psychological fatigue with social distancing is emerging as a major challenge for curbing a pandemic now into its eighth month. That’s especially so among young adults who are less fearful of the coronavirus, and suffer greater economic and social costs when they stay home.

From Japan to Spain and the U.S., infections among millennials and Generation Z are driving new waves of cases which don’t seem to be abating despite re-imposed restrictions. The worrying trend reflects that social distancing curbs are proving untenable over a long period, despite their initial efficacy in flattening the virus curve across the world earlier this year.

China reported 61 new coronavirus cases, with local infections jumping by 57, the most since it brought an initial outbreak that emerged in Wuhan under control in mid-March. The far west province of Xinjiang, which last week suspended buses and subways in its capital city Urumqi, reported 41 local coronavirus cases.

The coastal city of Dalian in northeast China is also seeing a jump in infections. The port city is taking a targeted approach similar to what Beijing employed to tame the outbreak. It has escalated the risk levels of infected neighborhoods to high and medium and barred residents there from leaving the city. Dalian has also launched mass testing to track down infections, and is tracking seafood products processed by the Dalian Kaiyang World Seafood Co., where the first infection was reported.

‘First bell’, the digital classroom started by the Kerala government to impart education to 41 lakh students in the state after schools shut due to the lockdown, has gained a global audience, officials said. As many as 2.42 lakh students did not have access to TV or the Internet at their homes, leading to a spontaneous mass movement to ensure digital learning facility for the under-privileged.

South Korea has reported 25 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing its national caseload to 14,175 infections and 299 deaths. South Korea's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said 16 of the new cases were tied to people arriving from abroad. The country in past days have reported dozens of cases among crew members of a Russia-flagged cargo ship docked in the southern port of Busan and hundreds of South Korean construction workers airlifted from virus-ravaged Iraq. Among the nine local transmissions, eight were from the Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the centre of a virus resurgence since late May.

With daily coronavirus cases (49,931) inching close to 50,000, the total number of infections in India crossed the 14-lakh mark on Monday. The toll rose to 32,771 with 708 deaths in the last 24 hours. Of the 14,35,453 cases, India currently has over 4.85 lakh active cases, while 9.17 lakh patients have already recovered.

A Department of Health analysis of 18,541 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in West Bengal since the state started coming out of a prolonged total lockdown in June has found that 56.5 per cent of them are between 16 and 45 years old, most of them men.

Among these patients, 29.3 per cent are in the 16 to 30 years category, 27.2 per cent are between 31 and 45 years, 23.7 per cent are between 46 and 60 years, while 12.9 per cent are between 61 and 75 years category. Only 3.7 per cent are younger than 16 years, and 3.2 per cent older than 75. More than 75 per cent of the cases were from Kolkata; its adjoining districts North 24 Parganas, Howrah and South 24 Parganas; and Hooghly.

With the number of critical Covid-19 patients and deaths from the infection in Andhra Pradesh rising sharply, along with a jump of over 80,000 in the overall number of cases this month, the state government has ordered 90,000 doses of anti-viral drug Remdesivir. According to official data, 1,041 deaths have been reported in the state so far — 707 of them from July 13 to 25. The case count in the state has gone up from 14,515 on June 30 to 96,298 as of July 26. Hetero Pharma will deliver the first consignment of 15,000 doses this week while the remaining will be delivered over the next three weeks, according to officials.

From putting up makeshift cardboard partitions at emery wheels where diamonds are polished to using UV light as disinfectant for paper sachets that pass through multiple hands, the diamond hub of Surat is finding new solutions in a desperate bid to revive business in a labour-intensive industry amid stringent Covid curbs. According to industry estimates, over 1,700 workers in the diamond business have tested positive, with the hubs of Katargam and Varachha turning hotspots.