Coronavirus: ‘Monster’ slashes New York, city of death
New York has had its deadliest day yet in the coronavirus pandemic with 731 deaths in a day.
New York has had its deadliest 24 hours yet in the coronavirus pandemic with 731 deaths in a single day, although a plateau in new hospitalisations raised hopes that the toll in the nation’s virus hotspot may be close to peaking.
It came as the director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the eventual death toll in the US may be “much lower” that initial forecasts because Americans were practising social distancing more than the initial models predicted.
CDC director Robert Redfield said early models showed only about 50 per cent of Americans would “pay attention” to social-distancing guidelines, when in reality the figure is far higher.
“What we’re seeing is a large majority of the American public are taking the social-distancing recommendations to heart,” he said. “And I think that’s the direct consequence of why you’re seeing the numbers are going to be much, much, much, much lower than would have been predicted by the models.”
The White House said last month that it estimated between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans would die from the coronavirus.
Donald Trump also said on Wednesday (AEST) that the eventual death toll could be lower than expected. “We are looking to have far fewer deaths than originally thought,” he said, although he added it was too early to be sure.
The death toll in the US jumped by more than 1000 people on Wednesday to more than 12,300 from almost 390,000 cases.
The President said the hotspots of New York and New Jersey were “being hit very hard now” and that hopefully in the next week or so “we start going in the other direction” in the battle against a virus that he called “the monster”.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said there was “a lot of pain today” for New Yorkers, after the state’s total number of deaths from COVID-19 soared to 5489.
“Behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father, is a sister, is a brother,” he said.
But Mr Cuomo said there were encouraging signs that the epidemic may be peaking in his state, with the number of new patients in hospitals increasing by less than 7 per cent for three straight days after growing by at least 20 per cent for weeks.
The number of patients on ventilators in intensive-care units rose by only 2 per cent, the smallest one-day rate in weeks.
“Right now, we’re projecting that we’re reaching a plateau in total number of hospitalisations,” Mr Cuomo said.
“To the extent that we see a flattening or a possible plateau, that’s because of what we are doing and we have to keep doing it.”
New York’s neighbouring state of New Jersey also hit its highest one-day toll with 232 people dying, taking that state’s toll to 1232.
In New York Harbour, the navy hospital ship Comfort, which is taking serious coronavirus cases, reported that a crew member had tested positive to the virus and had been quarantined.
In Wisconsin, the virus played havoc with voting in the Democratic primary, which was held despite other states delaying their primary contests because of the pandemic. The poll went ahead only after a legal battle after the state’s Governor tried but failed to prevent in-person voting because of the risks to voters.
New data reveals the virus is killing African-Americans at a greater rate than whites because it preys upon pre-existing conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, which are more prevalent among African-Americans.
In Chicago, black Americans account for 68 per cent of the city’s 118 deaths despite making up just 30 per cent of the city’s population, while in Louisiana 70 per cent of deaths are African-Americans. even though they comprise only one-third of the state’s population.
Mr Trump said African Americans were now “getting hit very very hard”. “Its a tremendous challenge, it’s terrible,” he said.
Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia
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