‘This was avoidable’: U.S. coronavirus cases hit new single-day record of 70,000

COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, had infected at least 13.8 million people globally and 3,576,221 in the U.S. as of Friday morning. It had killed 589,978 people worldwide and 138,358 in the U.S., Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

The situation looks particularly bleak in the south and southwest of the country. Texas reported more than 10,000 new cases for the third consecutive day, and 129 deaths, while Florida reported nearly 14,000 new cases and 156 deaths from the virus, the Associated Press reported.

In an interview with Facebook FB, +0.27% CEO Mark Zuckerberg Thursday, Fauci said it was time to regroup. “This was avoidable,” he said, adding, “The citizenry of the state or the city had the impression you went either from lock down to [throwing] caution to the wind.”

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for three decades appeared to take aim at the response to the coronavirus pandemic by the Trump administration — which has called for schools to reopen — and state lawmakers — who have enacted a patchwork of policies.

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