The novel coronavirus cases surpassed six million in the U.S on Sunday as many states in the Midwest reported increasing number of infections, according to a Reuters tally.

Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota have recently reported record one-day increases in new cases while Montana and Idaho are seeing record numbers of currently hospitalized COVID-19 patients.Nationally, metrics on new cases, deaths, hospitalizations and the positivity rates of tests are declining, but there are emerging hotspots in the Midwest.

A majority of the new cases in Iowa are in the counties that are home to the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, which are holding some in-person classes. Colleges and universities around the country have seen outbreaks after students returned to campus, forcing some to switch to online-only learning.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday said his state was sending a SWAT team to a State University of New York (SUNY) campus in Oneonta in upstate New York to contain a COVID-19 outbreak. Fall classes, which started last week at the college, were suspended for two weeks after more than 100 people tested positive for the virus, about 3 percent of the total student and faculty population, SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras said.

We have had reports of several large parties of our students at Oneonta last week, and unfortunately because of those larger gatherings, there were several students who were symptomatic of COVID, Malatras said.Across the Midwest, infections have also risen after an annual motorcycle rally at Sturgis in South Dakota. It drew more than 365,000 people from across the country from August 7 to 16. The South Dakota health department said 88 cases were linked to the rally.

More than eight months into the pandemic, the U.S. continues to struggle with testing. The number of people getting tested for the virus has fallen in recent weeks.

People wait to receive COVID-19 test at a temporary test site at Sunset Park of Brooklyn in New York, the United States, August 13, 2020. /Xinhua

Many health officials and at least 33 states have rejected the new COVID-19 testing guidanceissued by the Trump administration last week that said those exposed to the virus and without symptoms may not need testing.

Public health officials believe the U.S. needs to test more frequently to find asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers to slow the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Britain have handled the coronavirus pandemic poorly, according to a survey released on August 27.

Only 46 percent of Britons and 47 percent of Americans think their government has coped well with the coronavirus pandemic, far lower than Denmark with 95 percent. They're the only two countries where a minority of people said the government had done well.

While the United States has the most recorded infections in the world, it ranks tenth based on cases per capita, with Brazil, Peru and Chile having higher rates of infection, according to a Reuters tally.

The United States also has the most deaths globally at nearly 183,000 and ranks 11th for deaths per capita, exceeded by Sweden, Brazil, Italy, Chile, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Peru.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)