The number of coronavirus cases in the United States has surpassed China with more than 83,000 infections, as medical staff in the hardest-areas grapple with growing treatment demands.
According to Johns Hopkins data, 1201 people have died of COVID-19 in the United States, while 1864 people have recovered.
Critics blame a slow initial response to the virus outbreak, particularly the speed of testing for the virus and a shortage of masks and protective gear to protect medical staff and ventilators for patients.
President Trump has defended his administration’s efforts to contain the virus, citing early suspension of flights from China, and a $2 trillion stimulus package to deal with the unfolding health and economic crisis.
I embedded with the ER staff at the Brooklyn Hospital Center this week to document what it is like for doctors, nurses and staff on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak in New York. https://t.co/YjrXVhXBBj
— Sheri Fink (@sherifink) March 26, 2020
Since the virus outbreak reported in December with its origin in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it’s now spread around the world to be a global pandemic that is testing the world leadership and major economies.
The number of reported infections around the world stands at 529,614.
The Johns Hopkins data also provides a ray of hope as against more than 24,000 deaths, over 121,000 infected people have recovered as a result of treatment.
Until Thursday, China had the largest number of reported infections, followed by Italy and Spain.
New York has the largest concentration of cases, now numbered over 37,000. Around 160 million out of 330 million Americans have been advised to stay home from the East Coast to the West.
A report in The New York Times says the world will be a different place when the pandemic is over.
Dr. Anthony Fauci Warns Other States To Prepare For Coronavirus Case Surges Like New York’s 🦠 https://t.co/1lwZDad0WX
— Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 (@joncoopertweets) March 26, 2020
“India may surpass the United States as the country with the most deaths. Like the United States, it, too, is a vast democracy with deep internal divisions. But its population, 1.3 billion, is far larger, and its people are crowded even more tightly into megacities.”
China, which introduced some stringent measures has reported some success in containing the outbreak with now new cases reported in Wuhan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and Afghanistan have also reported a surge in the number of infections while Iran remains the epicenter of COVID-19 disease that has killed thousands of Iranians.
