The World Health Organisation had issued a statement two weeks ago on 24 March 2020 noting ‘a very large acceleration of cases’ in the US and predicted that it would be the epicentre of COVID-19.
That prediction has become a reality as the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States (422,369) has surpassed the combined number for Spain (146,690) and Italy (139,422).
The United States this week recorded the most number of deaths in one day of close to 1,900 since the pandemic. It is now the epicentre with 14,463 recorded deaths and over 400,000 cases as at this morning, 9 April 2020.
The worst hit city of New York recorded 779 new deaths from the virus in the past 24 hours, its highest single-day toll, though the state’s number of hospitalized patients is down. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo acknowledged progress but cautioned, “It’s not a time to get complacent.”
The nation’s top infectious-disease official, Anthony S. Fauci, warns that “now is not the time to pull back at all” on social distancing; rather, “it’s the time to intensify.” A CNN poll, however, found that almost half of American workers are still regularly leaving home for work.
Close to 200,000 Samoans live in the United States, who have this week acknowledged that it will reach its peak use of resources such as hospitals and ventilators – on or arond Easter Saturday.
Latest reports from the US have also identified black Americans as recording a disproportionately higher rate of infection and deaths. In Louisiana for example, over 70% of fatalities are black Americans while they make up only 1/3 of the state’s population.
At the same time, more than 120 nursing homes across the country have reported coronavirus infections including a facility in Redondo Beach California with four deaths and 38 cases.
A Los Angeles health official has come out to advise families with relatives in nursing homes to seriously think about taking them home.
