The coronavirus crisis has deepened in Arizona while the governor of Texas began to backtrack after making one of the most aggressive pushes in the nation to reopen, as the daily number of confirmed cases across the United States closed in on the peak reached during the dark days of late April, AP reported.

While greatly expanded testing probably accounts for some of the increase, experts say other measures indicate the virus is making a comeback. Daily deaths, hospitalisations and the percentage of tests that are coming back positive also have been rising over the past few weeks in parts of the country, mostly in the South and West.