US’ Covid deaths cross 1 million
WASHINGTON (AFP) - More than one million people have died in the United States due to Covid-19, the White House said on Thursday, as the country crossed a grim milestone in the pandemic, a grim milestone that comes as cities like New York try to tun the page on the pandemic despite threat of another surge.
''We must remain vigilant against this pandemic and do everything we can to save as many lives as possible, as we have with more testing, vaccines, and treatments than ever before,'' US President Joe Biden said in a statement.
“It’s unfathomable,” Diana Berrent, one of the first people in New York state to catch coronavirus, said of the toll that far exceeds epidemiologists’ worst predictions made at the outbreak of the crisis in spring 2020.
Then, New York City was the virus epicenter. Hospitals and morgues overflowed and empty streets rang to the sound of ambulance sirens as thenpresident Donald Trump responded chaotically in Washington.
Two years on, and life in the Big Apple is largely back to normal as residents attempt to put the collective trauma of the virus that has killed 40,000 New Yorkers behind them.
Broadway stage lights are once again illuminated, tourists are back riding in horse carriage in Central Park, yellow taxis clog main avenues and bars in business districts hum with post-work chatter.
“Without a doubt you feel the energy of the people that are on the streets. It’s been a long time coming,” Alfred Cerullo, president of a business improvement group in Midtown Manhattan, told AFP.
New York’s rebound has been aided by its high vaccination numbers -- some 88 percent of adults are fully vaccinated, a rate that was boosted by mandates, including for indoor activities like dining.
Jeffrey Bank, owner of Carmine’s restaurant near Times Square, says sales at the Italian eatery are better than they were in 2019, as residents and tourists make up for lost time.
“People have been sitting at home for two years. They want to celebrate and they’re entitled to,” he told AFP.
But the city has a long way to go. Many stores remain empty and only 38 percent of Manhattan office workers are in the office on an average weekday, according to Kastle Systems, a security firm that tracks building occupancy.
The Big Apple’s tourism board also doesn’t expect visitor numbers to get back to the 67 million of 2019 people for a few years.
And business owners fear another wave of infections.
“Obviously we are worried,” Frank Tedesco, who is unsure how he could keep his jewelry business afloat if another shutdown occurred, told AFP.
In recent weeks, the United States has seen an uptick in the number of daily virus cases, largely due to the new Omicron subvariant.
The rise has coincided with the lifting of mask mandates.
“I think we are in a place where psychologically and socially and economically, people are largely done with the pandemic,” said Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert at New York University.
“(But) the pandemic is not over. So you have a disconnect between what is happening epidemiologically and what’s happening in terms of how people are responding,” she told AFP.
Among the most at-risk are the unvaccinated, lower-income populations, uninsured people and communities of color, she says.
America recorded its first coronavirus death, on the West Coast, in early February 2020. By the next month, the virus was ravaging New York and the White House was predicting up to 240,000 deaths nationwide.
But those projections were way off.