Nearly 100,000 coronavirus cases in US: Johns Hopkins
The United States now has nearly 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and there have been 1,475 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.
There are 97,028 declared virus cases in the country, the Baltimore-based school said at 1900 GMT on Friday, an increase of nearly 18,000 cases over the same time on Thursday.
Johns Hopkins reported that there have been 1,475 deaths from coronavirus, an increase of 345 deaths over the number reported 24 hours previously, according to an AFP report based on information from the university tracker.
The largest cluster of cases in the United States is in New York City, the university said, with 25,573 cases and 366 deaths.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday that he expects the epidemic won't peak in his state for another three weeks.
The worst-hit countries in terms of numbers of cases after the United States are Italy, China and Spain, according to Johns Hopkins.
'THIS IS PAST A MOVIE PLOT… THE SCALE IS UNBELIEVABLE'
US doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak pleaded for more equipment to treat a wave of new patients expected to swamp capacity, going so far as to ask President Donald Trump to invoke emergency powers, Reuters reports.
Doctors have called attention to a desperate need for more ventilators, machines that help patients breathe and are widely needed for those suffering from COVID-19, the respiratory ailment caused by the novel coronavirus.
With the crisis mounting, Trump has resisted invoking the Defense Production Act, an emergency law granting him broad procurement authority. Instead, he has used Twitter to pressure manufacturers to act on their own.
Trump demanded that General Motors begin producing ventilators "NOW." He also told Ford to "GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!"
In a separate tweet, Trump said that the federal government had purchased a large quantity of ventilators from a number of companies, and that details would be announced later on Friday.
After days of wrangling, the US Congress passed a $2.2 trillion relief package on Friday, sending the bill to Trump, who was expected to promptly sign it into law.
"We are scared," said Dr Arabia Mollette of Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn. "We're trying to fight for everyone else's life, but we also fight for our lives as well, because we're also at the highest risk of exposure."
One emergency room doctor in Michigan, an emerging epicenter of the pandemic, said that he was using one paper face mask for an entire shift due to a shortage and that hospitals in the Detroit area would soon run out of ventilators.
The doctor, Rob Davidson, urged Trump to use the Defense Production Act to procure more test kits and ventilators. Organisations including the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association have publicly urged Trump to invoke the act.
"We have hospital systems here in the Detroit area in Michigan who are getting to the end of their supply of ventilators and have to start telling families that they can't save their loved ones because they don't have enough equipment," Davidson said in a video he posted on Twitter.
New York area doctors say they have had to recycle some protective gear, or resort to the black market.
Dr Alexander Salerno of Salerno Medical Associates described going through a "broker," paying $17,000 for masks and other protective equipment that should have cost about $2,500, and picking them up at an abandoned warehouse.
"You don't get any names. You get just phone numbers to text," Salerno said. "And so you agree to a term. You wire the money to a bank account. They give you a time and an address to come to."
In New York state, where there have been 44,635 cases and 519 deaths, officials plan to build eight temporary hospitals in a campaign to increase the number of hospital beds from 53,000 to 140,000.
A number of hotels in New York City, including the famed Plaza Hotel, the St Regis and the Four Seasons, will make rooms available to medical workers fighting coronavirus or to non-critical care patients, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
A little luxury would be welcomed by doctors and nurses working long hours while exposing themselves to the virus and coping with the loss of patients.
"This is past a movie plot. Nobody could ever think of this, or be totally prepared for this," said Eric Neibart, infectious disease specialist and clinical assistant professor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. "The scale is unbelievable."
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