| US Independence Day. The 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China. The weekend was bookended by celebrations. And while the world's two biggest economies are taking diametrically opposed approaches to Covid-19, both face a similar risk from the gatherings in the days ahead: more infections. For China's President Xi Jinping, it was a victory lap. He left the country for the first time in 893 days last week to commemorate Hong Kong's handover to Beijing from the British, and to swear in the city's new chief executive. Xi also had cause to celebrate China's success over Covid-19. After a grueling spring marked by the two-month shutdown of Shanghai and strict curbs in Beijing and other regions, the number of new infections among the country's 1.3 billion people had fallen to below 50 a day for most of the previous two weeks.  People wave Chinese flags on the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule. Photographer: Billy H.C. Kwok/Bloomberg During a symbolic visit earlier in the week to Wuhan, where the virus first emerged, Xi recommitted to the zero tolerance approach to Covid, saying it was the most effective and the best for the economy. The country has the capability and the strength to continue fighting until the "final victory," he said. It didn't take long for his resolve to be tested. The number of new infections in China has resumed climbing since Shanghai and Beijing both returned to zero community cases less than a week ago. In Anhui province alone, there were 287 cases on Sunday. Two counties were already in lockdown. And while the province may not be as well known as other Chinese megacities, it's part of an economic powerhouse known as the Yangtze River Delta that also includes Shanghai and manufacturing heavyweights in Jiangsu and Zhejiang that produce solar panels, medicines and semiconductor chips. The situation is much worse in Hong Kong, with nearly 2,000 new infections a day in an outbreak that authorities say they don't expect peak for some time. While there's a new leader in John Lee, there are no new answers for a city stuck between Beijing's hard line and the economic need to reopen to the rest of the world. Meanwhile in the United States, where the annual Fourth of July holiday is underway, aggressive efforts to move past the pandemic are being stymied by continued outbreaks. There are still more than 100,000 new infections registered daily, even as many people forego testing. And the growth of the BA.5 variant, which is continuing the pattern of being more transmissible and better able to avoid existing immunity, means another wave may be on the horizon. The summer respite that many in the northern hemisphere hoped for seems like a fever dream, even for those celebrating. -- Michelle Fay Cortez | 
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