WASHINGTON - For the second day running, the United States on Friday recorded more than 70,000 new coronavirus cases and more than 1,000 deaths in a 24-hour period, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University.

The world's hardest-hit country registered 73,795 new cases of COVID-19 with 1,157 additional deaths, the Baltimore-based university's real-time tracker indicated at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Saturday).

That brings the country to a total of 4.1 million infections, which have resulted in 145,324 fatalities.

A total of 1.26 million people have recovered from the disease.

After a drop in the rate of infections in late spring, the US has seen a coronavirus surge, particularly in southern and western states like  California, Texas, Alabama and Florida. 

For the past 11 days, the number of new cases being reported each day has topped 60,000.

Scientists agree that an increase in death rates follows the spike in infections by three to four weeks.

After regularly surpassing 500 deaths a day around the end of June, the daily toll for the past three days has exceeded 1,000.

More than 633,000 dead

The pandemic has already killed more than 633,000 people worldwide since it surfaced in China late last year, with more than 15.5 million people infected, according to an AFP tally at 1100 GMT on Friday based on official sources.

The United States has the most deaths with 144,305, followed by Brazil with 84,082, Britain with 45,554, Mexico with 41,908 and Italy with 35,092.

India passes the 30,000 death mark to overtake France as the sixth worst-hit country.

France imposes tests on 16 nations

French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on-the-spot tests for travellers visiting from 16 high-risk countries including the United States.

As France has not yet resumed general travel to and from these countries the tests will be for French citizens and residents.

Meanwhile, Germany decides to offer non-mandatory free tests to all returning travellers, as concerns grow over a rise in infections due to summer travel.

US Republican convention off

US President Donald Trump announced he is scrapping next month's Republican convention in Florida which was expected to nominate him as the party's candidate against Democrat Joe Biden for the November 3 election.

“The timing for this event is not right,” he says, as the number of coronavirus cases in he world's worst-hit country tops four million, with a surge, particularly in southern and western states, including Florida.

Britain imposes masks

Britain joins the growing list of countries imposing the use of face masks. It is compulsory to wear a face covering in shopping centers, banks, takeaway outlets, sandwich shops and supermarkets, following the lead of Scotland.

WHO worried about Europe

The World Health Organization (WHO) expresses concern over the resurgence of coronavirus cases on the European continent, saying countries should impose tighter restrictions if necessary.

The number of infections in Europe crossed three million on Thursday, a fifth of the world's cases. It remains the hardest hit in terms of deaths.

Schlumberger to lay off 21,000 workers

Texas-based oil services group Schlumberger says it expects to lay off more than 21,000 employees — a quarter of staff, also reporting a $3.4-billion quarterly loss.

Like other oil firms it has been hit by a trough in demand caused by coronavirus lockdowns.

Disney in new box-office blow Disney announces that the pandemic has forced it to indefinitely postpone the release of big-budget film "Mulan," while pushing back upcoming installments of “Star Wars” and “Avatar” by a year, in another blow to the box offices.