Coronavirus threatens to overwhelm Texas hospitals: Live updates

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

• Officials in Texas are warning that hospitals in the United States state could soon be overwhelmed if coronavirus cases continue to surge.
• Nearly 11.4 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and 533,343 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 6.2 million have recovered from the disease.

Here are the latest updates:

Monday, July 6 

01:45 GMT – Bolivia’s health minister diagnosed with coronavirus

Bolivia’s health minister Eidy Roca has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, the third member of the country’s cabinet to be confirmed with the disease.

Roca is in a stable condition and “strictly complying with the safety protocol that inlcudes isolation, medication and care,”  according to a statement from her office.

00:50 GMT – Victoria/NSW border closure confirmed

Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed the border with New South Wales (NSW) will be closed at midnight on Tuesday in Australia.

Victoria, which has sealed off a number of Melbourne suburbs and imposed a draconian lockdown on nine public housing blocks, said it had 127 new cases of the coronavirus. It now has 645 active cases.

Premier @DanielAndrewsMP confirms From 11.59pm tomorrow night the border with Vic and NSW will be closed. He says “all of us” agreed ( @GladysB @ScottMorrisonMP )
Says the border enforcement will be on NSW side. @10NewsFirstMelb #springst @10NewsFirstSyd pic.twitter.com/CP8hGSviAk

— Simon Love (@SimoLove) July 6, 2020

00:20 GMT – Australia’s New South Wales to close border with Victoria

The Australian state of New South Wales is to close its border with neighbouring Victoria after a surge in locally-transmitted coronavirus cases in Melbourne.

The closure will take effect on Tuesday, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

BREAKING:
The ABC understands the Victoria/NSW border will be closed from tomorrow night.

— Joe O’Brien (@JoeABCNews) July 6, 2020

23:00 GMT – Hospitals in some parts of US pushed to brink

Hospitals in some parts of the United States are in danger of being overwhelmed.

All beds are occupied in parts of Texas – one of the states worst hit by the resurgent virus.

“Our hospitals here in Harris County, Houston and 33 other cities … they’re into surge capacities,” Lina Hidalgo, the county’s chief executive, told ABC television in the US.  Her comments were echoed by Houston mayor Sylvester Turner, who said the system could be “overwhelmed” if the outbreak was not brought under control.

Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, has also expressed concern that hospitals could soon reach breaking point.

“If we don’t change our trajectory, then I am within two weeks of having our hospitals overrun. And in our ICUs, I could be 10 days away from that,” the mayor told CNN.

Read all the updates from yesterday here.