US overtakes Italy as world’s No. 1 coronavirus hotspot as diagnoses hit 75,600
The United States has overtaken Italy the be the global coronavirus hotspot with 75,6000 diagnoses and more than 1,000 deaths.
America saw thousands of new cases confirmed Thursday as it paced past Italy, which has 74,000 infected and a death toll of 7,503. While China still has the most coronavirus diagnoses – 81,285 – it claims to have contained its pandemic, with new diagnoses numbers slumping in recent days.
New York has quickly become the epicenter for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus, with more than 33,000 cases and 385 deaths as of Thursday, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The state saw an increase of 6,400 cases over the last day, Cuomo said, adding that 100 new deaths came overnight. There were 18,000 tests conducted over a 24-hour period in New York, the state reportedly testing more people per capita than any state in the country.
More than 5,300 people are currently hospitalized in New York with Covid-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus. The state currently has 1,290 ICU patients, according to Cuomo.
The surge in cases comes as hospitals across New York are facing shortages in supplies, including masks, gowns, ventilators and other PPE (personal protective equipment). On Tuesday, a nurse died of coronavirus at Mount Saini West – where nurses were reportedly forced to wear trash bags because of a shortage of gowns.
‘We don’t have enough for the long term supply,’ Cuomo said Thursday.
‘Frankly were dealing with hospitals that need it tomorrow and the day after.’
The governor has said the state is expected to need 140,000 hospital beds – but it only has 53,000. On Thursday, he said the state is projected to need 40,000 ventilators, but it only has 12,000 at the moment.
‘The number of deaths is increasing. People are dying. It’s not bad news in terms of it being unexpected. What is happening is that people who were infected have been on ventilators. The longer you are on a ventilator the more probability there is of a bad outcome,’ Cuomo said Thursday.
New Jersey is the state with the second-most number of cases in the country with 4,402 and 62 deaths, although Washington state has the second-most corovavirus-related deaths with 132. Washington was one of the first states to see coronavirus cases spread.