New York virus toll doubles in 72 hours
NEW YORK is rushing to bring in an army of medical volunteers as the statewide death toll from coronavirus doubled in 72 hours to more than 1,900, while the global number of infections edged closer to a million.
As hot spots flared around the US in places such as New Orleans and southern California, the nation’s biggest city was the hardest hit of all, with bodies loaded on to refrigerated mortuary trucks outside overwhelmed hospitals.
“How does it end? And people want answers,” said New York governor Andrew Cuomo. “I want answers. The answer is nobody knows for sure.”
President Donald Trump acknowledged that the federal stockpile is nearly depleted of personal protective equipment used by doctors and nurses and warned of trying times to come.
“Difficult days are ahead for our nation,” he said. “We’re going to have a couple of weeks, starting pretty much now, but especially a few days from now that are going to be horrific.”
Close to 940,000 people around the world have contracted the virus, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University, and more than 47,000 people have died.
The real figures are believed to be much higher because of testing shortages, differences in counting the dead and large numbers of mild cases that have gone unreported.
European nations are facing extraordinary demand for intensive care beds and are putting up makeshift hospitals, while unsure whether they will find enough healthy medical staff to run them.
Spain reported a new record in virus-related deaths yesterday, with 950 in 24 hours although the growth in infections is waning, health ministry data showed.
The total number of deaths stood at 10,003 while new coronavirus infections rose by nearly 8% overnight to 110,238.
Health authorities said the pace of contagion has dropped from a daily average of 20% until March 25 to less than 12% after that date, more than 10 days after Spaniards were ordered to stay at home.
The government has acknowledged that the real level of infection could be much higher because Spain only has the capacity of doing between 15,000 to 20,000 tests per day.
In Italy, with the most deaths of any country at more than 13,000, mortuaries overflowed with bodies and coffins piled up in churches, although experts drew hope that the spread was already slowing in the country.
Meanwhile, president Vladimir Putin has ordered most Russians to stay off work until the end of the month to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Speaking in a televised address to the nation, Mr Putin said he was extending the non-working policy he previously ordered for this week to remain in force throughout April.
He said there are exceptions for essential industries to keep operating, and grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open. Mr Putin said that it would be up to the regional authorities to decide which sectors should keep working in their areas.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said the country will pull out of a three-week lockdown in phases, as officials battle to contain the country’s biggest cluster of coronavirus infections in the capital, New Delhi.
The shutdown, which has brought Asia’s third-largest economy to a shuddering halt, is due to end on April 14.
Modi had ordered India’s 1.3 billion people indoors to avert a massive outbreak of infections, but the world’s biggest shutdown has left millions without jobs.
He told state chief ministers that the shutdown had helped but warned there could be a second wave.