New Yorkers taste more freedoms as reopening steps up

As the number of global coronavirus infections rose above the 9 million mark, and cases continue to rise in other parts of the United States, New York entered phase two of its reopening on Monday.

For long-suffering residents, that means they can finally get haircuts, shop for nonessentials, return to offices and dine outdoors for the first time in more than 100 days.

Once the epicenter of the global outbreak, the city was the last region in New York state to move into the second phase of reopening. Public playgrounds were also due to welcome people on Monday.

At his daily briefing on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio called it "a giant step for this city".

"This is where most of our economy is," he said.

But even with office workers allowed back, the streets of Manhattan were nowhere near the pre-pandemic level of activity. Businesses are still required to limit capacity and ensure physical distancing.

During the worst days of the COVID-19 crisis, New York state saw 1,000 deaths a day. On Monday, it reported 10 deaths from the virus and less than 2 percent of new tests coming back positive.

The pandemic had killed more than 120,000 US residents of the 2.3 million recorded as having been infected as of Monday. It is still flaring in a dozen states that reported record increases in cases last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

A dozen states in the South and Southwest reported record increases in new cases. In some areas, 10 to 20 percent of tests came back positive. The same states often reported record hospitalizations, a metric not affected by increased testing.

New cases rose by a record last week in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas－together home to about a third of the US population.

More troubling, health officials in the South said they are seeing more young people with the virus. The demographic shift has been noted in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and other states that were among the first to reopen.

US Vice-President Mike Pence addressed the trend on Monday on a conference call with governors, ABC News reported.

"We are seeing more people test positive under the age of 35, particularly in our discussions with the leadership in Florida and in Texas," Pence said.

"The better part of half of the people that are testing positive in the new cases are people under the age of 35... so we're working with those states and supporting measures that are being taken to address those issues in an appropriate way."

US President Donald Trump was due to travel to Arizona on Tuesday for a youth gathering in Phoenix.

Meanwhile, two more campaign staffers who attended Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday have tested positive for the virus, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said on Monday.

The new results take the number of Trump's campaign workers for the Tulsa event testing positive up to eight, including two secret service agents.

"These staff members attended the rally but were wearing masks during the entire event. Upon the positive tests, the campaign immediately activated established quarantine and contact tracing protocols," Murtaugh said.

Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.