The United States, which recorded its first confirmed case two months ago, now has more than 100,000 cases of the coronavirus, as reported by states’ health departments. The nation passed 10,000 cases on March 19 and on Thursday became the country with the most confirmed cases.
The United States surpassed China in confirmed coronavirus cases Thursday as the pandemic continued to slow in the country where it began, though Wuhan’s dwindling case counts have been called into question by independent reporting and treated with suspicion from experts.
As Chinese leaders tout their strict measures to contain the virus as effective, the coronavirus’s toll has only intensified elsewhere in the world. Earlier this week, the United States surpassed the case totals in China and Italy. The number of known cases has risen rapidly in recent days, as testing ramped up after weeks of widespread shortages and delays.Earlier this month, health officials declared Europe the crisis’s new epicenter, and coronavirus-related deaths in the United States topped 1,500 on Thursday.
House passes and Trump signs $2 trillion relief package
The House passed a massive $2.2 trillion stimulus bill on a voice vote after going to extraordinary lengths to overcome a procedural move by a single Republican that threatened to delay sending the bill to Trump for his signature.
Responding to the insistence by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that the vote take place with a quorum present — more than half of the 430 sitting members — lawmakers streamed into the chamber, with some taking places in the galleries usually reserved for the public, to conform to social distancing guidelines for the coronavirus.
The fear in the room could be seen in the minutes ahead of the vote as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others spoke toward the close of the debate. Several members wore surgical gloves. Some held their hand over their face as they passed other lawmakers or staffers.
Trump invokes Defense Production Act to require GM to manufacture ventilators
President Trump on Friday compelled General Motors to manufacture ventilators to help handle the surge of coronavirus patients, using his power under the Defense Production Act.
Trump announced that he had signed a presidential memorandum requiring the company to “accept, perform and prioritize” federal government contracts for production of the much-needed medical equipment shortly before signing a $2 trillion stimulus package to prop up the economy during this public health crisis.
Cuomo says New York has secured about half of the ventilators it needs
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said Friday night that his state has secured about half of the 30,000 ventilators it needs.
“We need ventilators and we need them now. … My possible apex is 14 days away,” Cuomo told Chris Hayes on MSNBC. “If I don’t have the ventilators in 14 days, Chris, people die.”
Cuomo said his state has received 4,000 ventilators from the federal government. New York had 4,000 in its own hospital system and bought 7,000 more ventilators, in addition to a scattered number of orders which “may or may not” come in, he said.
Cuomo estimated the price of a single ventilator at $2,500.
“We’re scrambling to buy them all across the world. … In a cruel irony, states are bidding against other states, Chris, for the same materials and they are actually bidding up the price,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo says New York preparing for virus apex in 14 days
New York officials are working to create new temporary hospitals and increase bed capacity in anticipation of an apex three weeks from now, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said Friday at a news conference.
The good news, Cuomo said, is that the rate of increase is slowing. But the number of cases are still climbing.
Some 44,000 New Yorkers had tested positive as of Friday, and 519 had died — an increase of 134 since Thursday.
Projections show that in 14 days, hospitals in the state could experience a crush of patients who need to be admitted or put on ventilators. Hospitals have been asked to expand their available beds by 50 to 100 percent as soon as possible, Cuomo said.
Officials anticipate needing about 90,000 more hospital beds and 20,000 ventilators.
People with a respiratory illness on a vent usually need it for two to four days, Cuomo said. But coronavirus patients are staying on them for up to 20 days. The longer someone spends on a ventilator, the less likely they can come off and survive.
More experts say Americans should probably start wearing masks.
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, experts have started to question official guidance about whether ordinary, healthy people should protect themselves with a regular surgical mask, or even a scarf.
The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to state that masks don’t necessarily protect healthy individuals from getting infected as they go about their daily lives.
The official guidance continues to recommend that masks be reserved for people who are already sick, as well as for the health workers and caregivers who must interact with infected individuals on a regular basis. Everyone else, they say, should stick to frequent hand-washing and maintaining a distance of at least six feet from other people to protect themselves.
But the recent surge in infections in the United States, which has put the country at the center of the epidemic, means that more Americans are now at risk of getting sick. And healthy individuals, especially those with essential jobs who cannot avoid public transportation or close interaction with others, may need to start wearing masks more regularly.
While wearing a mask may not necessarily prevent healthy people from getting sick, and certainly doesn’t replace important measures such as hand-washing or social distancing, it may be better than nothing, said Dr. Robert Atmar, an infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine.
But studies of influenza pandemics have shown that when high-grade N95 masks are not available, surgical masks do protect people a bit more than not wearing masks at all. And when masks are combined with hand hygiene, they help reduce the transmission of infections.
‘This is a white-collar quarantine’: Who can and can’t stay home.
In some respects, a pandemic is an equalizer: It can afflict princes and paupers alike, and no one who hopes to stay healthy is exempt from the strictures of social distancing. But the American response to the virus is laying bare class divides that are often camouflaged — in access to health care, child care, education, living space, even internet bandwidth.
In New York, well-off city dwellers have abandoned cramped apartments for spacious second homes. In Texas, the rich are shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to build safe rooms and bunkers.
A kind of pandemic caste system is rapidly developing: the rich holed up in vacation properties; the middle class marooned at home with restless children; the working class on the front lines of the economy, stretched to the limit by the demands of work and parenting, if there is even work to be had.
Boris Johnson Contracts Coronavirus, Rattling Top Ranks of U.K. Government
The British leader, who long resisted social distancing, is now isolating himself. But he said he would continue to lead the country’s response to the pandemic.
Fears of a wider contagion grew, as two other senior officials disclosed that they, too, were infected.
And with the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, saying this week that he had fallen ill with the virus, Britain faced the alarming prospect of having to confront its greatest crisis since World War II with several of its leading figures in quarantine.
Mr. Johnson, 55, insisted he would not relinquish his duties. In a remarkable two-minute video posted on Twitter, he used his own case as a sort of teachable moment for the country, appealing to people to work from home and comply with the more drastic social distancing measures he put in place Monday.
“I’ve developed mild symptoms of the coronavirus,” said Mr. Johnson, looking wan and speaking with a rasp in his voice. “Be in no doubt that I can continue, thanks to the wizardry of modern technology, to communicate with all my top team to lead the national fightback against coronavirus.”
If Mr. Johnson becomes incapacitated, his duties would be taken over by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, who has tested negative for the virus. It is a head-spinning turn of events for a government that, just two weeks ago, was brimming with confidence after a landslide election victory in December.