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Reuters
Members of the public applauded medical workers in Manhattan
The United States has become the first country in the world to record more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day.
Johns Hopkins University figures show that 2,108 people died in the past 24 hours, while there are now more than half a million confirmed infections.
The United States may soon overtake Italy as the country with the most coronavirus deaths worldwide.
But experts at the White House Covid-19 task force say the outbreak is beginning to stabilize across the United States.
Dr. Deborah Birx said there were good signs that the outbreak was stabilizing, but warned, “As encouraging as they are, we have not reached the peak.”
President Donald Trump also said he hopes the US USA See a lower number of deaths than the initial predictions of 100,000 deaths.
In other developments:
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Brazil became the first country in the southern hemisphere to exceed 1,000 deaths with coronavirus
- The head of the World Health Organization warned that lifting the coronavirus blocking measures too soon could lead to a “deadly resurgence” of the infection.
- Turkey ordered a 48-hour curfew in 31 cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, to start at midnight. The announcement, made just two hours before the start of the curfew, sparked panic buying and crowds of shoppers
- Aid agencies voiced alarm after the first virus case was confirmed in Yemen, where years of civil war have devastated health systems.
What exactly are the latest figures for the United States?
The United States now has at least 18,693 deaths and 500,399 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins.
About half of the deaths were recorded in the New York area.
Italy has recorded 18,849 deaths, while more than 100,000 people worldwide have died from the virus.
Investigators had predicted the death toll in the United States would peak on Friday and then begin to gradually decline, dropping to around 970 people per day on May 1, the day that members of the Trump administration floated as a possible date to start reopening the economy.
A city overturned
By Nada Tawfik, BBC News, New York
The coronavirus has changed everything about life, and is now overturning the rituals of death.
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Reuters
Refrigerated tractor trailers serve as temporary morgues in New York City
New Yorkers have been shocked by the grim scenes: ambulances constantly echoing through mysteriously deserted streets, body bags being transported to refrigerated trucks outside of hospitals, and new trenches are now being dug on Hart Island for possible mass burials.
The remote cemetery, accessible only by boat, is a place historically considered to be pitiful due to its mass graves with no headstones, just unclaimed bodies.
City morgues can only handle so long before temporary burials are needed for Covid-19 victims, once the worst case scenario is absolute.
Funeral directors openly talk about how scared and depressed the rising death toll has left them. Even before this week’s record number of deaths, some families have had to wait a week or more to bury and incinerate their loved ones.
Why might the outbreak start to level off soon?
Dr. Anthony Fauci, US Chief of Infectious Diseases. The USA agreed that the USA USA They were “beginning to see the leveling off and the decline” in cases and deaths.
But he added that despite “significant progress,” mitigation efforts, such as social distancing, should not yet be withdrawn.
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Dr. Birx noted that the rate of increase seemed to stabilize in the hardest hit regions like New York, New Jersey and the city of Chicago.
He added that the death rate in the United States was “significantly lower than that of many other countries, when corrected for our population.”
But he emphasized that the nation had not yet seen the peak of the outbreak. “We need to continue doing what we did yesterday, and the week before, and the week before because that’s what, in the end, will take us to the other side of the peak and to the other side.”
On Friday, the New York governor said the latest data showed the state was “flattening the curve” successfully.
“Although it is a routine, despite the fact that it is difficult, we have to continue with it,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo, warning that it was still too early to relax measures of social distancing.
The danger appears to be greater for minority communities in the United States, which have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19.
Dr. Jerome Adams, US Surgeon General The US said the trend was “alarming, but not surprising” given that minorities in the US USA They generally had more chronic health conditions like asthma, hypertension, and diabetes.
“In fact, I’ve been carrying an inhaler in my pocket for 40 years for fear of having a fatal asthma attack,” continued Dr. Adams, an African American.
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At Friday’s White House briefing, Trump said he had seen images of coffin drones piled up in a mass grave on New York’s Hart Island.
Authorities there say the island, which has been used to bury people without relatives for more than 150 years, is now burying bodies at a rate five times higher than normal.
Earlier in the day, Dr. Fauci told CNN that officials are discussing whether to adopt immunity certificates for Americans who have safely survived the coronavirus and have antibodies in their blood to prove it.
The certificates may “have some merit under certain circumstances,” he said, adding that antibody tests would be available next week.
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Meanwhile, in Washington, lawmakers are considering a “Covid-19 Hero Fund” to provide direct payments to workers on the front lines of the pandemic.
The Democrats-led proposal calls for an hourly rate of $ 13, in addition to the pay workers already receive from their employers. Payment would be limited to $ 25,000.
The money would go to nurses, doctors, supermarket employees, transit workers, and other workers deemed essential.
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