Reopenings stall as U.S. records nearly 50,000 cases of COVID-19 in single day

FILE PHOTO - An employee takes the temperature of a building tenant outside the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, as the iconic tower prepares to open to more tenants and visitors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., June 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

(Reuters) - Governors of U.S. states hit hardest by the resurgent coronavirus halted or reversed steps to reopen their economies on Wednesday, led by California, the nation's most populous state and a new epicenter of the pandemic.

New cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, shot up by nearly 50,000 on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, marking the biggest one-day spike since the start of the pandemic.