Fatalities in U.S. double in two days
DETROIT» The coronavirus continued its unrelenting spread across the United States, with fatalities doubling in two days and authorities saying Saturday that an infant who tested positive had died. It pummeled big cities such as New York, Detroit, New Orleans and Chicago, and made its way, too, into rural America as hot spots erupted in small Midwestern towns and Rocky Mountain ski havens.
Elsewhere, Russia announced a full border closure, while in parts of Africa, pandemic prevention measures took a violent turn, with Kenyan police firing tear gas and officers elsewhere seen on video hitting people with batons.
Worldwide infections surpassed the 660,000 mark, with more than 30,000 deaths, as new cases also stacked up quickly in Europe, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world in reported cases with more than 120,000. Confirmed deaths surpassed 2,000 on Saturday, twice the num
ber just two days before, highlighting how quickly infections are escalating. Still, five countries have higher death tolls: Italy, Spain, China, Iran and France. Italy now has more than 10,000 deaths, the most of any country.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Saturday an infant with COVID-19 died in Chicago and the cause of death is under investigation. Officials didn’t release other information, including whether the baby had other health issues.
“If you haven’t been paying attention, maybe this is your wake-up call,” said Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.
New York remained the worst-hit U.S. city. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said defeating the virus will take “weeks and weeks and weeks.” The United Nations donated 250,000 face masks to the city, and Cuomo delayed the state’s presidential primary from April 28 to June 23.
As President Donald Trump made his way to Norfolk, Va., to see off a Navy medical ship sent to New York City to help, he suggested imposing some kind of quarantine for New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, all hit hard by the coronavirus. The federal government generally does not have the power to impose such restrictions on states. Trump later backed off from the suggestion, saying it “will not be necessary.”
Cuomo said he believed a federal quarantine would be illegal, economically catastrophic and unproductive because other areas are seeing a surge. He said such a move would amount to “a federal declaration of war.”
But some states without known widespread infections began to try to limit exposure from visitors from their stricken neighbors.
Rhode Island National Guard troops were instructed to go door to door in coastal communities to find New Yorkers and advise them about a mandatory 14-day quarantine for people from that state.
Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, a Republican and close Trump ally, told reporters he had spoken with the president about the possibility of a quarantine for the greater New York City area. Desantis had ordered anyone arriving from Louisiana to selfquarantine and said law enforcement officers would set up checkpoints to screen cars from the state.
Louisiana has surpassed 3,300 infections, with 137 dead from COVID-19, according to the health department. Gov. John Bel Edwards said the region was on track to run out of ventilators by the first week of April.
Cases also have been rising rapidly in Detroit, where poverty and poor health have been problems for years. The number of infections surged to 1,381, with 31 deaths, as of noon Saturday. The city’s homeless population is especially vulnerable, officials said.
“At this time, the trajectory of Detroit is unfortunately even more steep than that of New York,” said Dr. Teena Chopra, the medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at the Detroit Medical Center.
“This is off the charts,” she said.
Chopra said many patients have ailments such as asthma, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. She also acknowledged that in Detroit, one of the nation’s largest African-american cities, many people distrust the medical system and government because of systemic racism.
“In Detroit, we are seeing a lot of patients that are presenting to us with severe disease, rather than minor disease,” said Chopra, who worried about a “tsunami” of patients.
Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Michigan, providing money for the outbreak. He has done the same for Colorado, New York, Louisiana and Illinois.
Cases in Chicago and suburban Cook County accounted for about threefourths of Illinois’ 3,026 total as of Friday. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot closed popular lake-shore parks after people failed to practice physical distancing, despite a statewide shelter-at-home order.
The governor of Kansas also issued a stay-at-home order to begin Monday, as the virus takes hold in more rural areas where doctors worry about the lack of beds in intensivecare units.
A cluster of three counties in rural Indiana have surging rates of confirmed cases. One of them, Decatur, population 26,000, has 30 cases with one death and another that doctors suspect is related to the virus, said Sean Durbin, the county’s public health emergency preparedness coordinator. Several cases were traced to large gatherings earlier in the month, including a religious retreat and a high school basketball tournament.
The disease threatens to be devastating for communities where everyone knows everyone, Durbin said, adding that he was a friend of the person believed to have died from the virus as well as others in critical condition.