Coronavirus: US braces for spike in infections

Coronavirus cases shot past 1.2 million globally, as the US braced for the most challenging days ahead for its hardest-hit cities.

A body is moved to a refrigerator truck serving as a temporary morgue outside New York’s Wyckoff Hospital in Brooklyn on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Confirmed coronavirus cases have shot past 1.2 million globally, as the US braces for the most challenging days ahead for many of its hardest-hit cities.

Modelling shows that New York, Detroit and New Orleans — and areas around those cities — will likely reach the peak of their outbreaks in the next six to seven days, White House coronavirus response co-ordinator Deborah Birx said on Sunday (AEST).

“The next two weeks are extraordinarily important,” Dr Birx said at a White House news briefing.

“This is the moment to do everything that you can on the presidential guidelines. This is the moment to not be going to the ­grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe.”

She declined to predict how many people could die in the ­hotspots, saying each place was different.

But she noted that New York has had several hundred deaths a day, and officials there have said that number could increase into the range of 500-700 people daily.

“There will be a lot of death ­unfortunately,” US President Donal­d Trump said at the briefing.

But he added there would be less death than there would have been without the government’s respons­e to stop the spread of the virus. The President has repeatedly urged Americans in recent days to follow federal social-­distancing guidelines.

The US has more than 312,000 cases, and New York state is hardest-hit with nearly 114,000 as of Sunday. More than 8500 people in the US have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, ­according to Johns Hopkins data.

About half of those are in New York. “It is like a fire spreading,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Most states now have stay-at-home orders, with governors in Alabama and Missouri announcing such restrictions on Friday. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on Saturday that all people wear face coverings in public, especially in hotspots.

In New York City, crematoriums are now running 24 hours a day, and the city put out a wireless emergency alert asking any lic­ensed medical personnel to volunteer to fight the virus.

New York state has been struggling to amass enough ventilators, the most in-demand hospital item in the fight. The Chinese government helped facilitate a donation of 1000 ventilators, which would arrive on Sunday, Mr Cuomo said.

Mr Trump said 1000 medical military personnel were being sent to New York to help. He said he had dispatched them and they would go “where they’re needed the most”.

But he returned to the message that he wanted to reopen the US as soon as possible, saying he was considering creating a second­ taskforce to focus on reopening.

Mr Trump also indicated there would be a “big decision” to make when assessing whether the federally recommended period of social distancing — which runs until the end of the month — would be enough mitigation. “We’re not going to destroy our country, we have to get back,” he said.

US medical experts and the White House have estimated the American death toll from the pandemic­ could reach 100,000- 240,000. At the same time, governme­nts around the world have further tightened limits on social activity, as the death toll surpasse­d 64,775 worldwide.

In Spain, 126,168 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, more than anywhere else after the US. So far, 11,947 people are known to have died there.

But in Italy, long the centre of the outbreak, the rate of infection is slowing. There were 124,632 confirmed cases of infection as of Sunday, with the rate of increase slowing, a sign that the strict social­-distancing measures introduced more than three weeks ago were having an impact.

Italy’s official death toll, however, remains the world’s highest, with 15,362 confirmed dead. But in Italy, as elsewhere, many people — infected and dead — aren’t being counted.

China, where the new virus first emerged late last year, is slowly returnin­g to normal after lifting one of the world’s longest and most stringent lockdowns.

According to Johns Hopkins data, the country has recorded more than 82,570 cases — now surpassed by those in the US, Italy, Spain, Germany and France — and the rate of spread has slowed.

The Wall Street Journal