Coronavirus latest: Cases on the rise in 3 US states

More than 200 asylum seekers who recently resettled at a new temporary camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, after the old one had burned down, have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Greek government spokesmen Stelios Petsas.

During a regular press briefing Monday, Petsas said that all 7,064 individuals who were admitted to the new Kara Tepe camp, near the island's capital Mytilene, had been tested for COVID-19 and that 243 of them were found to be infected.

The average age of those who tested positive was 24, and most didn't have any symptoms, according to Petsas.

Another 160 people who had come into contact with the migrants, mostly police officers and administrative staff at the camp, were also tested for the virus but all had negative results, Petsas said.

The new facility is not far from the remains of the Moria camp, where fires forced some 12,000 migrants to flee last week and seek shelter. Greek police believe the blazes were set deliberately by a small group of migrants angered by a lockdown imposed after a COVID-19 outbreak at the overcrowded camp. Six people, all Afghan nationals, have been arrested on suspicion of arson.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday that all remaining coronavirus-related restrictions will be lifted across much of the country, except for the most populous city.

The restrictions will end late Monday.

Auckland, where a fresh outbreak now appears to be under control, will continue to have some regulations for at least another 16 days. The plan is to increase the cap on gatherings in the city from 10 to 100 on Wednesday and then remove the limit altogether two weeks later, according to Ardern.

"Auckland needs more time," Ardern told reporters Monday. "Whilst we have reasonable confidence we are on the right track, there is still a need in Auckland for that cautious approach."

A cluster of cases emerged in Auckland last month, ending New Zealand's 102-day streak without any local transmission of the novel coronavirus. The outbreak prompted the government to impose a temporary lockdown in the region and reschedule national elections.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand's Ministry of Health has identified 1,815 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases as well as 25 coronavirus-related deaths. There are currently 62 active cases and three coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the country.

There were no new cases confirmed in the nation of 5 million people on Monday.

The United Kingdom could see about 50,000 new COVID-19 cases a day by mid-October if the current rate of infection is not curbed, the government's chief scientific adviser warned Monday.

"At the moment we think the epidemic is doubling roughly every seven days," Sir Patrick Vallance said in a televised address from London. "If, and that’s quite a big if, but if that continues unabated and this grows doubling every seven days... if that continued, you would end up with something like 50,000 cases in the middle of October per day."

That rate of infection would be expected to lead to 200-plus deaths per day by mid-November, according to Vallance, who noted that there are already measures in place to prevent the country from hitting those grim milestones.

"That requires speed, it requires action, he said, "and it requires enough in order to be able to bring that down."

Vallance said the increase in COVID-19 infections has been among "every age group" and that the number of people in the country showing antibodies for the disease remains low, meaning the "vast majority of the population remain susceptible."

"As the disease spreads, as it spreads across age groups, we expect to see increasing hospitalizations," he added. "And unfortunately, those increasing hospitalizations will lead to increasing deaths."

California's death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 15,000, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

The state's tally of coronavirus-related fatalities, which currently stands at 15,016, is the fourth-highest in the country, after New York, New Jersey and Texas.

California has reported the most COVID-19 infections of any U.S. state since the start of the pandemic, with more than 786,000 confirmed cases.

However, the state's infection rate has fallen to 3% in the past week, the lowest level since the early days of the pandemic, according to The Associated Press.