A second wave of coronavirus infections brewing in the US?

This comes as John Hopkins University reports that confirmed cases in the country surpasses the 2 million mark

Virus

A couple of red flags are being raised this week in the US, notably:

  • Texas reports its highest one-day count of new coronavirus cases i.e. 2,504 cases
  • Florida reports 8,553 new cases on the week – highest 7-day period total
  • California’s hospitalisations are at their highest since 13 May
Amid the ongoing protests in the country, the virus story is fading into the background – also the same for markets – but it is still something to be wary about.
I’ve mentioned before that the key thing for markets is how governments react to it and it is highly unlikely to expect a return to lockdown measures again.
In that sense, the “worst” is over but there are still more damaging parts that can’t really be quantified if the virus continues to be widespread among communities.
That will influence consumer behaviour/confidence and also impact the general workforce if there are going to be thousands of people sidelined every week because of this.
Despite the rise in the figures above, health experts are saying it is not clear if they are linked to the reopening of economies and the protests over the past two weeks.
But we’ll see how things go I guess. If there’s anything we’ve learnt from the initial outbreak is that complacency is the real killer.