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U.S. tops world with most COVID-19 cases as total reaches 85,653
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The United States has overtaken China to become the country with the most COVID-19 cases worldwide by Thursday afternoon local time, according to Johns Hopkins University.
As of 11:30 p.m. (0330 GMT on Friday), a total of 85,653 cases were reported in the country, with 1,290 deaths, data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at the university showed.
The nationwide tally has been growing by around 10,000 cases every day since last Saturday, and climbed from 70,000 to 80,000 in less than five hours on Thursday.
Among all 50 states and Washington D.C., New York has become the epicenter of the country’s outbreak, recording nearly 40,000 cases. Over 23,000 cases have been recorded in New York City (NYC), the largest city in the country with 8.6 million residents.
A high level of population density has accelerated the spread of COVID-19, according to experts and officials, who urged people to stay home and maintain social distancing while outside.
“We remain deeply concerned about New York City and the New York metro area,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, at a briefing on Tuesday.
She said anyone who has recently left this area should self-quarantine for 14 days “to ensure that the virus doesn’t spread to others.”
The New York state is scouting new sites for building temporary hospitals, besides four locations already confirmed, to serve as quarantine centers, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday.
The state aims to have a 1,000-plus patient overflow facility in all five boroughs of NYC as well as some downstate counties hit hard by COVID-19, including Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties, said Cuomo.
The governor said earlier this week that the COVID-19 cases may peak in two to three weeks, and the state will need some 140,000 hospital beds by then. The state currently has some 53,000.
New York’s Neighboring state, New Jersey, ranks the second in terms of COVID-19 caseload with over 6,800 cases as of Thursday night.
Donald Trump (or should it be DRUMPF ?) used the slogan ‘AMERICA FIRST’ for his 2016 presidential campaign.
Now that the U.S.A. has achieved that dubious honour in respect of WUHAN ‘FLU (he likes this description !!) perhaps Mr. President will take off his ‘racoon hat’ so that he no longer suffers from cerebral hyperthermia and – for once in this major international crisis – will be able to think properly.