NEW YORK NIGHTMARE
Killer infection rampages through New York amid anger at president
Coronavirus is killing someone every 17 minutes in New York as cases in the world’s most infected country topped 116,000.
The Big Apple has suffered more than a third of the US death toll with 450 victims by last night – 85 of them dying in 48 hours.
About 5250 New Yorkers have been hospitalised, with 1175 in intensive care as the city’s health services descend into chaos.
One doctor claimed staff there were treating more patients than when the city’s World Trade Centre was targeted in a terrorist attack in September 11, 2001.
Dr Steve Kassapidis, who works at Mount Sinai hospital in the Queens district said: “9/11 was nothing compared to this.
“It’s biblical. People come in, they get intubated, they die, the cycle repeats.”
Of New York City’s five boroughs, Queens is now the epicentre of the outbreak with 8214 cases – a oneday increase of 32 per cent. Half of the area’s neighbourhoods have reported over 51 per cent of its Covid-19 tests come back positive.
Brook lyn, the most densely populated borough, has 6750 cases, up 26 per cent from Thursday. Dr Emad Youssef of Brooklyn’s Brookdale hospital added: “The hospitals look l i ke a wa r zone.” Manhattan patients are testing positive at a lower rate than outer boroughs, with no neighbourhood reporting more than 40 per cent of patients confirmed positive.
But health workers across the city have reported shortages of masks and gowns
The state’s ethical guidelines for allocating ventilators in a pandemic say resources should be devoted to patients most likely to be saved.
US president Donald Trump is now set to impose a quarantine on New
York in a bid to slow the spread. He said: “We’d like to see it quarantined because it’s a hotspot. I’m thinking about that right now.”
Trump added that “New Jersey and certain parts of Connecticut” could be quarantined under the new measures, saying: “We might not have to do it but there’s a possibility that today we’ll do a quarantine – short term for two weeks.”
But New York State’s governor Andrew Cuomo said he had not discussed such measures with the president.
He added: “I didn’t speak to him about any quarantine. I haven’t had those conversations.
I don’t even know what that means.”
New York has imposed a 10pm curfew and ordered residents only to leave their homes if it’s essential and to stay six feet apart.
Citizens have also been told to work from home.
Expat Linda O’Flanagan said: “It’s easy to forget what day it is when every day is much the same. Craving normality is now a big goal as New
York transforms into a police state. The basketball hoops have been removed from city parks.
“Buses and subways are still running so essential workers can travel but police tape is used to stop passengers using the front door or getting within three rows of the driver.”
At least 1943 people have died so far in the US – with Florida, Louisiana, Illinois and Michigan expecting cases to rocket amid growing anger at Trump’s handling of the crisis.
His response has been to hit back at state governors who have complained of lack of support and supplies, saying: “They should be appreciative to me.”
Trump has signed off a
£ 1.7t r i l l ion f inancial stimulus package but has been accused of putting the stock market ahead of lives.
Now he has evoked the Korean War- era Defense Production Act, which allows a president to force firms to make products for national defence.
In this case it’s to get GM Motors to make ventilators.
Italy’s coronavirus deaths rose by 889 in a day to 10,023 – the highest in the world.
The Lombardy region, which has borne the brunt of the coronavirus contagion, recorded 542 of the new deaths.
It was the second highest daily increase since the virus emerged on Feb 21.
Italy’s largest daily toll was registered on Friday, when 919 people died. The number of confirmed cases rose to 92,472 from a previous 86,498.
It has the world’s second highest number of cases, behind the US.
The government was said to be planning to extend a country-wide lockdown to mid-April.
Spain yesterday was hit by a record number of coronavirus deaths in a single-day. Fatalities linked to Covid19 rose by 832 in 24 hours. The previous Spanish record was 769 deaths which was announced on Friday. The grim statistic means 5812 people have now died in the country.
Latest figures also confirmed a further 8000 people had the illness.
Spanish Ministry of Health figures show 72,248 people have been infected.
Only Italy’s single-day death tally is worse than Spain’s.
But despite the rising death toll in Spain, emergency health director Fernando Simon claimed said: “The disease is stabilising and we can say some areas of the country may have surpassed the peak, although we can’t say the same at a national level.”
Responding to reports in Spanish media pointing to the likelihood the number of coronavirus deaths was higher than the of f icial figures, he insisted: “It’s true we can’t test all those people infected and there may be some that escape us.
“But Spain is making a great effort to be as transparent as possible.”
It was also announced Spanish princess Maria Teresa, 86, had died after testing positive for Covid-19.
It’s biblical. People come in, they get intubated and then they die, the cycle repeats”