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A nursing home in New York has reported a “deadly” number of deaths of 98 people from the coronavirus as residential facilities continued to emerge as a deadly source of outbreaks worldwide.
The death toll at the Isabella Geriatric Center in Manhattan is one of the worst outbreaks of its kind in the United States and caused a commotion even in New York after an official state tally of nursing home deaths listed only 13 in the home until friday. .
But officials at the 705-bed center later confirmed that as many as 46 residents who tested positive for Covid-19 had died, as well as 52 other people suspected of having the virus, the Associated Press reported. Some died in the nursing home, and others died after being treated in hospitals.
“It is absolutely horrible,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “It is simply impossible to imagine so many people lost in one place.”
The number of bodies became so overwhelming that the house ordered a refrigerator truck to store them because funeral homes have taken days to collect the deceased.
“Isabella, like all nursing homes in New York City, initially had limited access to consistent and widespread internal testing to rapidly diagnose our residents and staff,” Audrey Waters, a nursing home spokeswoman, wrote in a email.
“This hampered our ability to identify infected and asymptomatic people, despite our efforts to quickly separate anyone with symptoms.”
Isabella also encountered a staff shortage, leading to her hiring outside agencies and the first challenges in securing personal protective equipment for employees. Waters said the house finally has more access to the evidence now.
A survey last month of nursing homes in New York State found that 19 had reported 20 or more pandemic-related deaths, increasing the chance of hundreds of unattributed deaths from Covid-19 in a state where almost 24,000 people have died from the disease.
The state health department said it received reports of outbreaks from 239 nursing homes, including at least six facilities with a death toll of 40 or more patients.
“The only thing we know now about nursing homes is that the status quo cannot continue to say the least,” de Blasio said. “Something very different has to happen.”
The death toll in the UK has risen sharply this week after officials began counting deaths in the country’s nursing homes along with deaths in hospitals.
Britain now has the third highest number of deaths in the world, 27,510 according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, behind only the United States and Italy.
In Australia, where the virus has been more rapidly controlled, deaths continued to rise in a nursing home in western Sydney.
Thirteen people died at Newmarch House in Penrith out of a national total of just 93, and threatens to overtake cruiser Ruby Princess as the largest source of death in the country. On Saturday, two other staff members were confirmed to have the virus.
Nearly 70 veterans were reported Wednesday to have died from the virus in a Massachusetts nursing home.
Worldwide there are now 3.4 million coronavirus cases and more than 238,000 deaths, but many countries continue to relax their blocking restrictions.
Singapore’s health minister said Saturday it will begin easing some restrictions after a second wave of the coronavirus hit the state’s crowded dormitories of migrant workers.
From May 12th selected activities will be allowed, such as home businesses, laundry services and barbers. Some students will be allowed to return to schools in small groups beginning May 19.
In the United States, California Governor Gavin Newsom He promised to make “significant” changes to orders to stay home in the coming days, as thousands of protesters rallied across the state in defiance of the shutdown.
There were protests in the state capital Sacramento, and there was also a large protest at Huntingdon Beach in Los Angeles, where anger flared at Newsom’s order to close the beaches.
Donald Trump told Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer that he should “come to terms” with protesters against the blockade after they invaded the state capitol this week. Whitmer rejected the idea of reaching a settlement during a public health emergency, but said some outdoor work will be allowed to resume next week.
In other parts of the world, key developments include:
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The US Federal Drug Administration. USA It has approved the experimental drug remdesivir to be used in an emergency in patients with Covid-19.
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Also in the United States, the White House has banned the administration’s top pandemic expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, from presenting evidence at a hearing in Congress. He said it was inappropriate for a member of the pandemic response team to rest.
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Europe’s tourism industry and its host economies, such as Spain, Italy and Greece, are facing the crisis of the closure caused by the virus. The European Commission estimates that EU hotels and restaurants will lose half of their income this year.
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The UK government was urged to prioritize spending in the poorest areas of the country after official statistics revealed that those regions have been the hardest hit by Covid-19 deaths. We report on life in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country, Newham, in East London.
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The economic cost of the crisis has continued as the stock markets fell sharply on Friday thanks to the ongoing war of words between the United States and China. In the UK, the Financial Times has reported that Rolls-Royce plans to ditch 8,000 of its 52,000 workforce.
