U.S. surpasses Italy for most virus deaths in the world, tally shows
NEW YORK – The United States on Saturday surpassed Italy for most fatalities from the new coronavirus of any country, according to Johns Hopkins University.
A running tally from the Baltimore-based university showed that the number of deaths surged to over 20,000 in the U.S., while nearly 19,500 people had lost their lives in Italy, which previously bore the grim record for the highest death toll during the global pandemic.
Different population sizes, reporting standards and approaches to testing make comparisons between countries difficult, and the true number of infections is likely higher, in part owing to testing shortages. Similarly, the death tolls might be greater.
In the U.S. – which has by far the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases globally, with some 522,300 infections – New York remains the hardest-hit state, with more cases than any other country in the world.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 783 more people had died, which was consistent with the daily death toll in recent days, taking the total number of deaths in the state to more than 8,600.
“You can see that the number is somewhat stabilizing, but it is stabilizing at a horrific rate,” Cuomo said during a daily press conference. “These are just incredible numbers, depicting incredible loss and pain.”
In encouraging news, Cuomo reiterated that the curve was continuing to flatten, with hospitalizations and intubations down.
But he warned of reopening the economy too quickly in New York, the country’s financial capital, pointing to places around the world that had experienced resurgences in the virus.
“Reopening is both an economic question and a public health question,” Cuomo said. “And I’m unwilling to divorce the two. You can’t ask the people of this state or this country to choose between lives lost and dollars gained.”
The governor also contradicted school policies announced by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio hours earlier, saying “there has been no decision” regarding the continuing closure of the city’s public schools system, the nation’s largest with nearly 1,900 schools.
De Blasio had announced that schools would remain closed through the end of the academic year, leaving more than a million students out of school until September.
More than a dozen other U.S. states have already announced that their schools will remain shuttered until the end of the academic year.
The stay-at-home orders imposed on more than 90% of the country have taken a huge toll on the U.S. economy, and conversations have intensified in the White House about how long business closures and travel restrictions can be maintained.