US grapples with pandemic as its origins are traced in China

United States was grappling with worst coronavirus outbreak in world on Monday, as Florida shattered national record for a state’s largest single-day increase in new confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, two World Health Organization experts were part of a mission in China to trace origin of pandemic. virus was first detected in central China's city of Wuhan late last year. Beijing had been reluctant to allow a probe but relented after scores of countries called on WHO to conduct a thorough investigation.

Deaths from virus have been rising in U.S., especially in South and West, though y are still well below heights hit in April, according to a recent Associated Press analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

“I really do think we could control this, and it’s human element that is so critical. It should be an effort of our country. We should be pulling toger when we’re in a crisis, and we’re definitely t doing it,” said University of Florida epidemiologist Dr. Cindy Prins.

Adm. Brett Giroir, a member of White House coronavirus task force, called mask-wearing in public, which has been met with resistance in some U.S. states, “absolutely essential.”

Giroir, assistant secretary at Health and Human Services Department, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that “if we don’t have that, we will t get control of virus.’’

President Donald Trump wore a mask in public for first time Saturday, something Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday showed he has “crossed a bridge.”

Pelosi told CNN’s “State of Union” that she hopes it means president “will change his attitude, which will be helpful in stopping spread of coronavirus.”

In Florida, where parts of Walt Disney World reopened Saturday, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded, according to state Department of Health statistics reported Sunday.

California had previous record of daily positive cases — 11,694, set on Wednesday.

numbers come at end of a record-breaking week as Florida reported 514 fatalities — an aver of 73 per day. Three weeks ago, state was averaging 30 deaths per day.

Researchers expect deaths to rise in U.S. for at least some weeks, but some think count probably will t go up as dramatically as it did in spring because of several factors, including increased testing.

Regarding WHO experts in China, country's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said y would work with Chinese scientists and medical experts on “scientific cooperation on new coronavirus tracing issue.”

China has argued that virus might have originated outside of China and has angrily denied allegations that it covered up scale of outbreak as infections first began to spread.

U.S. President Donald Trump has harshly criticized WHO over its response to coronavirus pandemic and accused it of bowing to Chinese influence. Trump administration formally tified U.N. last week of its withdrawal from WHO, although pullout won’t take effect until July 6, 2021.

“We have a basic consensus with WHO that virus tracing is a scientific issue, and that requires international scientific research and cooperation of scientists across world,” ministry spokesperson Hua said at a daily briefing. “WHO also believes that virus tracing is an issue in progress, which may involve multiple countries and regions, and WHO will also conduct similar inspections in or countries and regions as needed.”

WHO has confirmed visit by an epidemiologist and an animal diseases specialist but has t given out information on ir ndas while in China. virus causing deadly illness COVID-19 is believed to have originated in bats and n jumped to humans via an intermediary species, possibly anteater-like pangolin that is prized in China for its scales used in Chinese medicine as well as its meat.

In or parts of world, number of infections has been rising dramatically in India, South Africa and Brazil, whose virus-denying president has tested positive.

India, which has most confirmed virus cases after United States and Brazil, on Monday reported a record daily surge of 28,701 new cases reported in past 24 hours. Authorities in several cities are reinstating strict lockdowns after attempting to loosen things up to revive an ailing ecomy.

In South Africa, which accounts for over 40% of all reported coronavirus cases in Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Sunday that country would reimpose a ban on alcohol sales to reduce volume of people needing emergency so hospitals have more beds to treat COVID-19 patients.

South Africa is also reinstating a nighttime curfew to reduce traffic accidents and has made it mandatory for all residents to wear face masks in public.

In France, government was considering requiring use of masks in all indoor public s amid a small rise in virus infections and a big drop in public vigilance. Greece was seeking a ban on church and vill fairs and tighter tourism-related checks following a recent increase in confirmed coronavirus cases.