Coronavirus tally: Chinese city of Wuhan under lockdown again as China moves to rein in cases

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic first started, has been locked down again as China moves to halt a widening outbreak of cases, Reuters reported. China on Thursday reported a third straight day of more than 1,000 new COVID cases nationwide, a modest tally compared with the tens of thousands per day that sent Shanghai into a full-blown lockdown earlier this year but enough to trigger more restrictions across the country. Guangzhou, China’s fourth-biggest city by economic output, was also locked down. In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. The daily average for new cases stood at 37,615 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 4% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was flat% at 26,792, while the daily average for deaths is down 5% to 361. Globally, the confirmed case tally rose above 629.1 million on Thursday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins, while the death toll is above 6.58 million with the U.S. leading the world with 97.3 million cases and 1,069,449 deaths.