US hit hardest, New Orleans, Chicago suffer
NEWYORK/MADRID/MILAN: The sum of known coronavirus cases in the US soared well past 100,000, with more than 1,800 dead, as weary doctors and nurses coping with shortages resorted to extremes ranging from hiding scarce medical supplies to buying them on the black market.
New York remained the worst-hit US city, with governor Andrew Cuomo saying that the struggle to defeat the virus will take “weeks and weeks and weeks”. Americans braced for worsening conditions elsewhere, with worrisome infection numbers being reported in New Orleans, Chicago and Detroit.
As shortages of key medical supplies abounded, desperate physicians and nurses were forced to take matters into their own hands. New York-area doctors said they have had to recycle some protective gear, or even resort to bootleg suppliers.
An emergency room doctor in Michigan, an emerging epicentre of the pandemic, said he was wearing one paper face mask for an entire shift due to a shortage and that hospitals in the Detroit area would soon run out of ventilators.
WASHINGTON: The US on Friday became the first country to report 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases as the number of infections globally crossed 600,000.
With the crisis escalating, US President Donald Trump signed into law a $2.2 trillion emergency spending bill aimed at protecting American families and businesses from the economic hardships caused by the pandemic.
Later, Trump said he’s considering an enforced quarantine for parts of New York and New Jersey to curb the outbreak.
Trump told reporters he had spoken with New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Florida governor Ron Desantis.
Also on Friday, Trump invoked the Korean War-era 1950 Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to ramp up production of ventilators desperately required to treat severely ill patients.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continued to climb aggressively, finishing on Friday at 105,470 - up roughly by 20,000 over the previous day. The number of US deaths also kept rising, hitting 1,710 - about 400 more than Thursday.
New York state drove the surge with at least 728 fatalities and over 52,318 confirmed cases. Other US states with high fatalities are Washington, New Jersey and California.
“We didn’t choose it, but we are going to defeat it together because we’re going to work together,” Trump said of the emergency facing the country as he signed the stimulus package bill into law, flanked by top officials and Republican lawmakers.
The $2.2 trillion relief package includes direct payments to a third of all Americans, ramped up unemployment benefits, and loans for small and large businesses hit by the outbreak.
In Los Angeles, a giant US Navy hospital ship arrived in port on Friday, where it will be used to ease the strain on the city’s coronavirus-swamped emergency rooms.
The USNS Mercy, which has docked in the LA port, will quickly become the city’s largest hospital with 1,000 beds.
It will not receive coronavirus patients, but instead take patients with a wide range of other conditions or injuries in order to free up facilities on land. The Mercy has 15-patient wards and blood bank capacity of 5,000 units.
Governor Gavin Newsom, speaking at a joint press conference after touring the vessel with mayor Eric Garcetti, said the ship will play a key role as California braces for a surge in Covid-19 infections that could require 50,000 hospital beds statewide in the next six to 10 weeks.
Los Angeles is “on track within a week to be aligned with where New York City currently is,” he said, referring to America’s most populous city which has almost half of US’ 100,000-plus coronavirus cases.