‘Darkest day in New York for a generation’: 779 die from COVID-19 in 24 hours

New York has been forced to call in more funeral directors as a record 799 people die in just 24 hours.

Workers wearing personal protective equipment bury bodies in a trench on Hart Island in the Bronx borough of New York. Picture: AP

New York has been forced to call in more funeral directors to cope with the number of bodies from the coronavirus pandemic as a ­record 799 people died in just 24 hours in America’s virus hotspot.

About 2000 Americans are dying each day of the coronavirus as the crisis ravages the US, despite revised projections of a lower than expected final death toll.

The grim new milestone came as another 6.6 million new jobless claims were made in the US last week, meaning that 17 million, or about one in 10, American workers have lost jobs in the past three weeks. The unprecedented figures show how quickly the US economy has closed up, setting the country on course for an unemployment rate not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Picture: AFP

The virus epicentre of New York suffered its worst one-day toll yet with 799 deaths taking the total death toll to 7067 across the state and Governor Andrew Cuomo saying he would need to bring in extra funeral directors to handle the large numbers of bodies.

“It’s gotten to the point frankly that we are going to bring in additional funeral directors to deal with the number of people who have passed,” Mr Cuomo said. “If you ever told me that as governor I would have to take these actions, I couldn’t even contemplate where we are now. And to put all this in perspective, I lived through 9/11. (It) was supposed to be the darkest day in New York for a generation.”

Almost 50 refrigerated trailers have been set up outside New York hospitals to store the large number of bodies, while funeral homes, crematoriums and cemeteries are being overwhelmed by the demand for services.

A funeral director wears personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 concerns while collecting a body at The Brooklyn Hospital Center. Picture: AP

However, Mr Cuomo said he was encouraged that the increase in hospitalisations had slowed to 1 per cent on Thursday, a potential sign the apex of the crisis in New York might be nearing.

Although more than 18,000 New Yorkers were in hospital, with almost 5000 of these in intensive care, if current trends held Mr Cuomo said the state would probably have enough beds and ventilators. If the pandemic were to worsen, then they would not be able to handle the number of cases.

Nationally, the death toll rose by a new daily record of 1922 to more than 16,000. The high death rate means the US will overtake Italy within days to be the world’s worst-hit nation.

There was some good news, with the global health research centre IHME reducing its projection of US deaths by August from 93,000 to 60,000, assuming Ameri­cans continue to practise ­social distancing until May.

Triage tents are seen outside of the emergency room at Jacobi Medical Center. Picture: Getty Images

Other hot spots are fast emerging in the US, including in New Jersey, Michigan, Louisiana and Illinois. In Detroit, Michigan, the Sinai-Grace hospital was so overrun with patients that two people reportedly died in its emergency room hallways before help could be given.

As congress continues to debate more stimulus measures for the collapsed economy, the Federal Reserve unveiled emergency programs that could dole out more than $US2 trillion ($3.16 trillion) in loans to businesses and state and city governments.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also gave an upbeat assessment about the economy, saying he believed it was possible that the country could be “open for business” by next month.

The country’s top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, also said it “may be on the cards” that Americans could go on holiday or attend weddings or sports events this northern summer, although only if careful steps were taken to prevent a revival of the virus.

“I say that with some caution because when we do that … we have to be prepared that when the infections start to rear their heads again, that we have in place a very aggressive and effective way to identify, isolate, contact-trace and make sure we don’t have those spikes that we see now,” he said.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia