NYC death toll tops total from 9/11
Around the nation, infections close in on 400,000 cases
NEWYORK— NewYork City’s death toll from the coronavirus rose past 4,000 Tuesday, eclipsing the number killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
The development came even as the crisis seemed to be easing or at least stabilizing, by some measures, in New York and parts of Europe, though health officials warned people at nearly every turn not to let their guard down.
COVID-19’s toll in New York City is now more than 1,000 deaths higher than that of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil, which killed 2,753 people in the city and 2,977 overall, when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001.
New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
“A lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers,” Cuomo said.
But in an encouraging sign, the governor said hospital admissions and the number of those receiving breathing tubes are dropping, indicating that measures taken to force people to keep their distance from one another are succeeding.
And alarming as the one-day increase in deaths might sound, the governor said that’s a “lagging indicator,” reflecting people who had been hospitalized before this week.
Over the past several days, the number of deaths in New York appeared to be leveling off
“You see that plateauing — that’s because of what we are doing. If we don’t do what we are doing, that is a much different curve,” Cuomo said. “So social distancing is working.”
In Washington, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he will attempt to swiftly pass additional funds for small businesses to keep making payroll as Congress looks to provide more aid during the coronavirus crisis.
The Republican leader plans a vote this week — possibly as soon as Thursday — to supplement the $350 billion approved for companies in the just-passed $2.2 trillion rescue package with an immediate additional $250 billion or so, according to GOP operatives.
The aid is the top GOP priority for an expected fourth coronavirus relief bill. But trying to jam it through a nearly abandoned
Capitol without elements sought by Democrats could threaten the fragile political peace going forward.
The vote requires unanimous agreement since it’s planned for a “pro forma” session that wouldn’t typically involve Senate business.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants the boost in small business fund as part of much broader aid package topping at least $1 trillion.
Across the country, the death toll topped 12,800, with more than 398,000 confirmed infections.
Some of the deadliest hot spots were Detroit, New Orleans and the New York metropolitan area, which includes parts of Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. New Jersey has recorded more than 1,200 dead, most of them in the northern counties where many residents commute into New York City.
Louisiana’s Health Department released more information about the state’s coronavirus deaths showing victims are disproportionately black and two-thirds of those who have died suffered from high blood pressure.
Although African Americans account for one-third of Louisiana’s population, they represent more than 70% of the deaths from the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus in a state deemed one of the nation’s most unhealthy.
Elsewhere around the globe, China listed no new cases Tuesday, though the country’s figures are regarded with suspicion by some public health experts.
In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a monthlong state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures because of a spike of infections in the country with the world’s oldest population. The order will close entertainment businesses.
In some European hot spots, authorities saw signs that the outbreak was turning a corner, based on slowdowns in new deaths and hospitalizations.
In Spain, new deaths Tuesday rose to 743 and infections climbed by 5,400 after five days of declines, but the increases were believed to reflect a weekend backlog.
Authorities said they were confident in the downward trend.
In Italy, the hardest-hit country of all, with over 16,500 deaths, authorities appealed to people ahead of Easter weekend not to lower their guard and to abide by a lockdown now in its fifth week, even as new cases dropped to a level not seen since the early weeks of the outbreak.
In France, the number of dead climbed to more than 10,300, said Jerome Salomon, national health director.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that if Americans continue to practice social distancing for the rest of April, “we will be able to get back to some sense of normalcy.”
Worldwide, about 1.4 million people have been confirmed infected and more than 82,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The true numbers are almost certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different rules for counting the dead and deliberate underreporting by some governments. Nearly 300,000 people have recovered.