COVID-19 Update: United States passed 3.5 million total infections

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, in the latest numbers, more than 13.5 million people around the world have been reported to have been diagnosed with COVID:19.

More than 7.5 million have recovered and more than 582,000 have died.

The worst-hit, the United States, has passed 3.5 million total infections on Thursday and has recorded more than 137,000 reported deaths.

The numbers have driven more US state governors required residents to wear face-coverings in public.

Key numbers in the US

Texas

• Texas COVID-19 current hospitalizations decline for second day in a row, fall by 14 to total of 10457.
• Texas COVID-19 cases rise by 10291 on Thursday to total of 292656.
• Deaths rise by 129 to 3561 total, highest single-day increase and record increase for second day in a row.

Florida

• Florida reported the largest one-day increase in deaths from the novel coronavirus since the pandemic began and its second-largest increase in cases ever.
• Florida announced 13,965 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state and the center of the latest outbreak to over 315,775, according to the state health department.
• Florida's COVID deaths rose by 156 to a total of 4,782, surpassing its previous one-day record of 133 new deaths on July 12.
• Hospitalisations of patients with COVID-19 was the highest ever reported at 8,626 currently hospitalized, up 321 in the past 24 hours, according to a state agency.

Aussie cases mount while China bounces back in a V-shaped economic recovery 

In Australia, the state of Victoria gave its daily update on coronavirus yesterday, reporting 317 new cases.

This was record for Australia. Two men in their 80s were also confirmed to have died from the disease.

Meanwhile, there were some encouraging numbers in China's Gross Domestic Produce yesterday that showed it rose by 3.2 percent in the three months ending in June compared with the same period a year ago, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The economy slumped 6.8 percent in the previous quarter, the first such contraction since 1992.

"It's very much a story of government stimulus:led recovery," Rodrigo Catril, a foreign exchange strategist at NAB in Sydney told Reuters. "The consumer remains very cautious."