Europe, US watch case totals grow, debate new restrictions

Confirmed coronavirus infections continued to soar Saturday in many parts of U.S. and Europe. In some cases, so did anger over restrictions governments put in place to try to stem tide.

Oklahoma, Illiis, New Mexico and Michigan were among states anuncing new record highs in daily confirmed cases Saturday, a day after a nationwide daily record of more than 83,000 reported infections, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said it’s “w more important than ever that people take this seriously.” 3,338 new COVID-19 cases in her state topped old record by more than 1,300.

German authorities reported a record one-day total of new coronavirus cases this weekend while leaders in Spain and Italy debated how to control resurgent virus amid public pushback to curfews despite a global death toll topping 1.1 million people.

In Italy, officials huddled with regional authorities on Saturday to determine what new restrictions could be imposed as confirmed cases surpassed half a million.

Premier Giuseppe Conte has said he doesn’t want to put Italy under severe lockdown again, as he did at pandemic’s start. In past days, several goverrs ordered overnight curfews in ir regions to stop people from congregating at night outside bars and or venues.

One such curfew fueled anger in Naples, triggering a violent clash by protesters with police. Italian media said protesters hurled rocks, pieces of broken ceramic tiles and smoke bombs at police while y battled back with tear gas. Elsewhere in Europe, police in Warsaw, Poland, used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters angry over new virus restrictions, and anti-lockdown demonstrators gared in London's Trafalgar Square.

Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese on Saturday branded Naples protests “unacceptable” and said prosecutors were investigating.

According to Health Ministry figures, Italy’s one-day new caseload of confirmed infections crept closer to 20,000 on Saturday, a slightly bigger daily increase than Friday. nation’s confirmed death toll, second-highest in Europe after Britain’s, rose to 37,210 after 151 more deaths.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez plans to meet with his Cabinet Sunday morning in Madrid to prepare a new state of emergency, a strategy used twice since start of pandemic.

first in March ordered strict home confinement across nation, closed stores, and recruited private industry for national public health fight. second went into effect two weeks ago, focused on transit limits in Madrid area.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged citizens again to reduce ir number of social contacts as nation recorded a new daily high for infections.

14,714 cases reported on Saturday includes cases from both Friday and Thursday because of a three-hour data out at country’s disease control ncy Thursday. Forty-nine more people died, bringing overall death toll past 10,000.

chancellor said in her weekly podcast “if we all obey (to social distancing) we will all toger survive this ermous challenge posed by virus.”

Or European countries have tightened restrictions hoping to cope with ir own rising case counts.

Slovenia closed down hotels, shopping malls and or n-essential shops as authorities reported a record high of both new daily infections and deaths in small country of 2 million people. Greece unveiled a mask requirement and a mandatory nightly curfew for Ans and or areas deemed high risk.

In South America, Colombia became eight country to reach 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to Colombian Ministry of Health. Two of ors are also in Latin America: Argentina, which hit that mark on Monday, and Brazil, which has more than 5 million confirmed cases.

In U.S., virus has claimed about 240,000 lives, according to COVID-19 Dashboard published by Johns Hopkins. total U.S. caseload reported Friday was 83,757, topping 77,362 cases reported on July 16.

Many rural communities are bearing brunt. In Columbia, Tennessee, Maury Regional Medical Center said Friday it was suspending elective surgical procedures that require an overnight stay for two weeks, beginning on Monday. Daily Herald reported that it was treating 50 COVID-19 inpatients, 20 of whom were in medical center’s 26-bed intensive care unit.

Martin Chaney, Maury Regional’s chief medical officer, said small home garings have become emerging threat through which disease is being spread in six-county region medical center covers.

“In our homes, we all let our guard down,” Chaney said. “You think it is safe to t socially distance, and you take your masks off. That is spreading disease very rapidly.”