National Post (National Edition)
‘Preparing for a worst-case scenario’
U.S. DEATHS UP 950
NEW YORK • The White House is expected to urge Americans to begin wearing face coverings in public to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, in a reversal of earlier recommendations.
The new measures come as the mounting death toll from the virus besieged New York City morgues and hospitals struggled to treat thousands of patients on Thursday with a dwindling supply of ventilators and protective equipment.
Funeral homes and cemetery directors described a surge in demand not seen in decades as cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, surpassed 50,000 in the city, with nearly 1,400 dead.
“In many ways New York state is a microcosm of the United States and that’s why I think it is going to be illustrative to the rest of the nation as to what is going to happen,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
The human costs were further underscored by new evidence of the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic, with more than 90 per cent of Americans ordered to ride out the crisis at home.
The U.S. government reported that a record 6.6 million Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, double the previous all-time high set a week earlier.
“It takes your breath away,” said Justin Hoogendoorn, head of fixed income strategy and analytics at Piper Sandler in Chicago. “Obviously the immediate reaction to something like that is going to be fear.”
Texas became the 40th state to issue a stay-at-home order to help contain the spread of the virus.
As if 10 million Americans losing their jobs in two weeks were not enough, the U.S. death toll soared by 950 on Wednesday, marking the third day in a row of record increases. Another 800 deaths reported so far on Thursday increased the national toll to more than 5,600 dead, according to a Reuters tally of official data.
Confirmed U.S. cases surpassed 235,000 on Thursday, double that of Italy, the country with the second-most cases. The White House task force on the pandemic estimates 100,000 to 240,000 people could be killed even if lockdown is respected.
Globally, the number of infections approached one million, with more than 50,000 fatalities as of Thursday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
To deal with the number of deaths, the Defense Department was looking to provide up to 100,000 body bags to fill an order placed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a Pentagon official told Reuters. New York City crematories were extending their hours.
“We’ve been preparing for a worst-case scenario, which is in a lot of ways starting to materialize,” said Mike Lanotte, director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association.