◆ Virus toll in New York soars to nearly 3,000 as state pleads for aid.
New York, the increasingly battered epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak, on Friday reported its highest number of deaths in a single day, prompting state officials to beg the rest of the United States for assistance and to enact an emergency order designed to stave off medical catastrophe.
In the 24 hours through midnight Thursday, 562 people — or one almost every 2 ½ minutes — died from the virus in New York state, bringing the total death toll to nearly 3,000, double what it was only three days before. In the same period, 1,427 newly sickened patients poured into the hospitals — another one-day high — although the rate of increase in hospitalizations seemed to stabilize, suggesting that the extreme social-distancing measures put in place last month may have started working.
Despite the glimmer of hope, the new statistics were a stark reminder of the gale-force strength of the crisis that is threatening New York, where more than 102,000 people — nearly as many as in Italy and Spain, the hardest-hit European countries — have now tested positive for the virus. The situation, as it has been for weeks, was particularly dire in New
York City, where some hospitals have reported running out of body bags and others have begun to plan for the unthinkable prospect of rationing care.
“It is hard to put fully into words what we are all grappling with as we navigate our way through this pandemic,” Vicki LoPachin, chief medical officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, wrote in an email to the staff Friday. “We are healing so many and comforting those we can’t save — one precious life at a time.”
Around the country, the total number of coronavirus cases spiked sharply as of Friday afternoon, exceeding a quarter million, with more than 6,660 total deaths. After New York, New Jersey was the state with the highest rate of infection. Globally, more than 1 million people had been infected and nearly 60,000 had died.
Hot spots continued to emerge. “We continue to watch, in addition, the Chicago area, the Detroit area, and have developing concerns around Colorado, the District of Columbia,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said at a daily news briefing Friday. She added that the government would “move supplies creatively around the country to meet the needs of both the front line health care providers but also every American who needs our support right now.”