March 28, 2024
Coronavirus update: One New York City resident died every 12 minutes from coronavirus over the weekend
Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. have climbed past 153,200, with a death toll of over 2,800, while around 5,000 have recovered from infection, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The virus, which was first reported in Wuhan, a city in China's Hubei province, has infected over 766,300 people globally across 177 countries and regions. More than 160,000 have recovered from infection, while over 36,800 have died. Around 82,200 people have been confirmed to be infected in China, nearly 76,000 of whom have recovered, while more than 3,300 have died.

The U.S. is now the new epicenter of the outbreak, with its total confirmed cases nearly doubling that of China and surpassing Italy, which has more than 101,700 cases, including 11,591 deaths (the world's highest death toll so far).

The outbreak has gained ground in the U.S. and has devastated New York, the worst-hit state in the country, with more than 59,500 cases recorded as of Sunday, according to the latest report from the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

New York City alone has reported more than 33,700 cases to date, with at least 776 deaths, while the state's death toll has surpassed 1,000 over the weekend.

In a bid to further combat the spread, President Donald Trump on Sunday announced an extension of the lockdown measures, which were previously scheduled to end on Monday.

"The peak of this virus' death rate is likely to hit in two weeks. We MUST stay the course and keep following the guidelines," the White House warned in a post on its official Twitter account on Sunday.

"We will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread," Trump said at a White House press briefing on Sunday.

Nearly half of the country, at least 22 states, have issued "stay at home" orders which require residents to remain at home, while all non-essential businesses, including bars and restaurants, entertainment facilities and other places of public gatherings, are shuttered.

On Sunday, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) who is on the U.S. COVID-19 virus task force, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that the country could potentially face up to 200,000 deaths from the virus, if no measures are taken to curb the outbreak.

"Whenever the models come in, they give a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario. Generally, the reality is somewhere in the middle. I've never seen a model of the diseases that I've dealt with where the worst case actually came out. They always overshoot," Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper on the State of the Union.

One New York City resident died every 12 minutes from coronavirus over the weekend

New York City's average fatality rate due to COVID-19 amounted to roughly one death every 12 minutes—or five deaths per hour—between Thursday and Sunday evening, according to data reports published by the NYC Department of Health.

On Thursday night, March 26, the city reported 365 deaths from COVID-19 infection. By Friday evening, the total had risen to 450. It had climbed to 672 by Saturday evening and 776 by Sunday. Calculations drawn from those figures equate to one death per 11.7 minutes over the course of 72 hours. In total, 411 New York City residents passed away as a result of the illness during that three-day period.

In response to the heightened incidence of coronavirus patients in the tri-state area, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a domestic travel advisory Saturday, which urged residents of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to avoid non-essential domestic travel for the next 14 days. However, employees working in essential industries are exempt from the advistory. During a press conference on Sunday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state's "PAUSE" directive would be extended through April 15 in another measured effort to contain the virus' spread.

The USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship deployed from Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday, arrived in Manhattan Monday morning to support New York City's health care system as it takes on a growing number of COVID-19 cases.

Equipped with 1,000 beds, 80 additional ICU beds, 12 operating rooms, a blood bank, a pharmacy, a medical laboratory, a CT scanner and radiology suites, the ship will offer 24-hour services to patients seeking medical attention unrelated to the new coronavirus.

Virginia governor orders state residents to stay at home until June 10

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam joined a growing number of states in issuing a stringent "stay at home" order on Monday, telling residents to remain in their homes except for essential purposes until June 10.

Many states and municipalities across the country have already issued stay at home or "shelter in place" orders as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread rapidly. Announcing the executive order on Monday, Northam said: "I want to be clear: Do not go out unless you need to go out. This is very different than wanting to go out."

Other states have set shorter deadlines for their stay at home orders to expire, although they can always be extended at the governor's discretion.

Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, issued a similar stay at home order on Monday.

There have been more than 2,800 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., area, according to news station WTOP. The number has more than quadrupled in the past week.

Seven states in the U.S. have now extended school closures for the rest of the year

Seven U.S. states have closed school for the remainder of the year, as the new coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country.

When the virus began to spread in the U.S., many states temporarily closed schools, but as the virus has continued to spread, a few states have decided to move ahead and closed school for the rest of the year including Arizona, Alabama, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Virginia and Vermont.

47 million Americans at high risk of layoffs: Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve analysts said the unemployment rate may soar past 32 percent and the coronavirus freeze on the economy could cost 47 million Americans their jobs.

Economists at the Federal Reserve's St. Louis district estimated Monday that the coronavirus impact on the economy may lead to 47 million jobs lost, pushing the nationwide total to 52.8 million people when the estimated 5 million already without work are included. This would push the U.S. unemployment rate to 32.1 percent, which is significantly higher than the 24.9 percent rate of unemployment last marked during the worst stretch of the 1930s Great Depression, Forbes noted.

Last week, a record number of Americans filed for unemployment benefits, 3.28 million - more than quadruple the previous record of 695,000 set in 1982. But the Fed analysis shows the worst of the novel coronavirus' negative effects on the U.S. economy are yet to come.

FDA says hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can be used to treat coronavirus

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of two anti-malaria drugs to treat patients infected by the new coronavirus.

On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine could be prescribed to teens and adults with COVID-19 "as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible," after the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization. (EUA) That marked the first EUA for a drug related to COVID-19 in the U.S., according to the statement.

Currently, there are no specific drugs for COVID-19.

Both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are used to treat diseases including malaria, and have "shown activity in laboratory studies against coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19)," the HHS stated.

"Anecdotal reports suggest that these drugs may offer some benefit in the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Clinical trials are needed to provide scientific evidence that these treatments are effective."

Nations across the globe have experienced recent increases in deaths from COVID-19 infections. Spain—behind the United States and Italy in terms of confirmed cases overall— recorded 35 deaths per hour over the weekend, according to the New York Times. By Monday morning, Spain's fatalities had reached 7,340, a statistic surpassed only by Italy, where almost 11,000 people have died. (Source: Newsweek)
Story Date: March 31, 2020
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