U.S. TOPS WORLD IN INFECTIONS; COOK COUNTY TOTAL WATCHED
NEW YORK — The United States now leads the world in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases.
According to a running count by Johns Hopkins University, the number of people infected in the U.S. topped 82,000 on Thursday. That’s just ahead of the 81,000 cases in China and 80,000 in Italy.
More than 1,200 people have died of the coronavirus in the United States. About 385 of the deaths are in New York State, the worst hotspot in the nation. Most of those victims were in New York City, where hospitals are getting swamped.
Around the globe, the death toll rose to about 8,200 in Italy, 4,100 in Spain and 1,700 in France, including a 16-year-old.
More than 500,000 people around the world have contracted the coronavirus. The global death toll climbed past 23,000, according to Johns Hopkins’ running count.
Birx watching Cook County cases
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coordinator for coronavirus response, expressed concern about the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in Cook County, noting it could become a hotspot of the virus’ spread.
She said at Thursday’s White House briefing that the task force is not only looking at where the cases are today, but where they will be in the future so the Federal Emergency Management Agency can be alerted to where the next hotspots will be.
Birx also mentioned Wayne County in Michigan, which is outside Detroit.
“So we have integrated all of our information to not only look at where the cases are today, but how they’re moving so we can alert FEMA to where we think the next potential hotspot is,” she said. “All of the counties that I mentioned in the hotspots are in urban areas or in the communities that serve that urban area.”
$2.2 trillion coronavirus package expected to get House approval Friday
With rare bipartisanship and speed, Washington is about to deliver massive, unprecedented legislation to speed help to individuals and businesses as the coronavirus pandemic takes a devastating toll on the U.S. economy and health care system.
The House is set to pass the sprawling, $2.2 trillion measure Friday morning after an extraordinary 96-0 Senate vote late Wednesday. President Donald Trump marveled at the unanimity Thursday and is eager to sign the package into law.
The relief can hardly come soon enough. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday the economy “may well be in recession” already and the government reported a 3.3 million burst of weekly jobless claims.
The measure is unlikely to be the end of the federal response. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that issues like more generous food stamp payments, aid to state and local governments, and family leave may be revisited in subsequent legislation.
“There’s so many things we didn’t get in … that we need to,” Pelosi told reporters.
The legislation will pour $1,200 direct payments to individuals and a flood of subsidized loans, grants and tax breaks to businesses facing extinction.
First, the measure must clear Congress. Friday’s House vote will be unusual as the normally raucous chamber promises to pass the measure with a sparsely attended voice
vote — remarkable for a bill of such magnitude — so lawmakers don’t have to risk exposure by traveling back to Washington.
Friday’s House session will also be unprecedented. Originally scheduled as a nonworking “pro forma” meeting, the session will be extended to a debate on the bill — all conducted under social distancing rules — with a voice vote for passage. But late Thursday, it was feared iconoclastic Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., an opponent of the bill, may seek to force a roll call vote.
Louisiana joins N.Y. as hotspot
New York state’s death toll jumped by 100 in one day, pushing the number to 385, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
Louisiana was quickly becoming another smoldering hotspot. The number of new cases there jumped by more than 500 Thursday, for a total of over 2,300, with 86 deaths, including a 17-year-old, the health department said.
Trump to see ship in Norfolk
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would visit Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday to see off the USNS Comfort, the 1,000-bed hospital ship heading to assist New York in responding to the virus.