New York is about to get hit by a ‘bullet train’
The Tokyo Olympics were put off to next year as coronavirus deaths and infections surged in Europe and the US yesterday, with New York warning it is about to get hit by a ‘‘bullet train.’’ Stocks soared as Washington lawmakers closed in on a nearly $2 trillion deal to help businesses and ordinary Americans pull through the crisis.
Around the globe, India, with 1.3 billion people, or one-sixth of the Earth’s population, ordered the biggest lockdown in the world. A flicker of hope that Italy might be turning the corner faded after officials reported an increase in new cases and deaths. And Spain had so many bodies it commandeered an ice rink to store them.
More than 415,000 people worldwide have been infected and over 18,500 have died, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
In New York City, one of the biggest hot spots, authorities rushed to set up thousands of hospital beds for potential victims. The number of cases is doubling every three days, threatening to swamp the city’s intensive care units in the weeks ahead, Governor Andrew Cuomo said. The state has recorded more than 200 deaths, or one-third of the US total.
‘‘One of the forecasters said to me: ‘We were looking at a freight train coming across the country,’’’ the governor said. ‘‘We’re now looking at a bullet train.’’
Cuomo proposed the country send thousands of ventilators to New York City – the metropolitan area needs 30,000 of them, he said – and demanded that President Donald Trump use wartime authority to force manufacturers to produce them. ‘‘People said it’s a war. It is a war. Then act like it’s a war!’’ Cuomo said.
Trump has invoked the Korean War-era Defence Production Act to deter hoarding but has been reluctant to use it to force companies to produce medical supplies. Vice President Mike Pence said on Fox News that 2000 ventilators have been shipped to New York and 2000 more will be sent today.
The International Olympic Committee postponed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics until the summer of 2021 at the latest.
In Washington, top congressional and White House officials said they expected to reach a deal soon on a package to shore up businesses and send relief cheques to ordinary Americans of $1200 per person or $3000 for a family of four.
Stocks rallied around the world on the news. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 2100 points, or 11.4 per cent, for its best day since 1933.
With Americans’ lives and livelihoods hanging in the balance, Trump said he hoped to reopen the country in less than three weeks. ‘‘I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,’’ he said during a Fox News virtual town hall.
With infections in the US exceeding 50,000, including more than 690 deaths, public health experts have warned that failing to maintain social distancing would balloon infections to the point the health care system would be overwhelmed and many more people would die.
Spain, meanwhile, registered a record one-day increase of nearly 6600 new infections and a leap of more than 500 in the death toll, to almost 2700.
The country started storing bodies in an ice rink converted to a morgue until they could be buried or cremated. Also, army troops disinfecting nursing homes discovered elderly people living amid the corpses of suspected coronavirus victims. Prosecutors opened an investigation.
In Italy, a jump in the number of new deaths and cases over the last 24 hours dashed hopes fed by two days of declines. The 743 deaths reported yesterday pushed Italy’s toll past 6800, by far the highest of any country.
‘‘Woe to whoever lets down the guard,’’ Health Minister Roberto Speranza said. ‘‘Now, more than ever, the commitment of everyone is needed.’’
In a distinct shift in the crisis, some 85 per cent of new infections are coming from Europe and the United States. In fact, Chinese authorities ended the two-month lockdown in hard-hit Hubei province, where the outbreak began, though it’s still in effect in the city of Wuhan until April 8.
World Health Organisation spokeswoman Margaret Harris said cases around the world are expected to increase ‘‘considerably.’’
In Britain, confusion rippled through the country after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a three-week halt to all nonessential activity.
The government told most stores to close, banned gatherings of three or more people and said everyone apart from essential workers should leave home only to buy food and medicine or to exercise. But photographs showed crowded trains on some London subway lines.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: ‘‘Ignoring these rules means more lives lost.’’
For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever or coughing. But for some older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. More than 100,000 people have recovered.
Elsewhere around the world, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi decreed a ‘‘total lockdown’’ of the country for 21 days. India has reported about 500 cases.
‘‘To save India and every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes,’’ Modi said.
Neighbouring Pakistan ordered its railways shut down as infections climbed past 900.
The Philippine Congress approved a bill declaring a national emergency and authorising President Rodrigo Duterte to launch a huge programme and tap private hospitals and ships to help as the outbreak starts to take hold. The country reported more than 550 cases.
In contrast to other European countries, Germany offered some hope that it has flattened the exponential spread of the virus, which has infected some 30,000 people. The death toll was relatively low at about 130, and Germany has even taken in patients from France and Italy for treatment.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government approved a massive aid package to counter the economic fallout, offering more than 1 trillion euros to tide over small companies and entrepreneurs and pump capital into bigger companies.