U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 30,000, New Yorkers told to wear masks

[webfact]

U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 30,000, New Yorkers told to wear masks

By Maria Caspani and Doina Chiacu

 

Medical workers respond at Maimonides Medical Center during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID19) in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., April 14, 2020. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

 

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. coronavirus death toll - the highest in the world - surged past 30,000 on Wednesday after doubling in a week, while the hardest-hit state of New York ordered residents to wear masks in certain settings to combat the pandemic.

 

The sobering milestone was reached at a time when states spared the worst of the pandemic were mulling a partial lifting of restrictions on business and social life by May 1, a target date promoted by President Donald Trump.

 

The goal of getting the country back to work took on more urgency with the release of two government reports showing plummeting retail sales and factory output last month.

 

U.S. deaths on Wednesday stood at 30,400, according to a Reuters tally, with 630,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. After the first U.S. death, reported on Feb. 29, it took 38 days to reach 10,000 deaths and nine days to jump from 10,000 fatalities to 30,000.

 

A University of Washington model, often cited by the White House, this week predicted the total U.S. deaths in the pandemic could reach about 68,800 by early August. That suggests the United States has not even reached the halfway point in possible fatalities.

 

Italy, with more than 21,000, has the second-most reported deaths caused by the pathogen that first emerged last year in China, followed by Spain with more than 18,500. Worldwide, the pathogen has killed at least 133,000 people.

 

After saying earlier this week that New York had passed the worst of the crisis, Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday ordered his state's 19 million residents to wear masks or substitutes when in any public situation that may not allow them to be at least six feet away from others. New Yorkers will have three days to comply with the order, aimed at ensuring the mask wearer does not infect others.

 

Cuomo said 752 people died in his state in the past day - down slightly from the previous day but still high, although hospitalizations declined in a sign the crisis was easing.

 

"If you are going to be in public and you cannot maintain social distancing then have a mask, and put that mask on," Cuomo told a news briefing.

 

New York is following the lead of a few places that already have policies regarding face coverings in certain circumstances, including Los Angeles.

 

Health experts have recommended the use of face masks after initially discouraging the public from wearing them, out of concern over a short supply for medical professionals treating coronavirus patients.

 

Cuomo also gave an outline of how he would begin to reopen businesses, starting with the most essential and those where the risk of infection spread was smallest.

 

With evidence that the outbreak is slowing in states like New York, political leaders have engaged in an acrimonious debate over when to try to reopen the economy without paving the way for a deadly second wave of infections.

 

States and local governments have issued "stay-at-home" or "shelter-in-place" orders affecting about 94% of Americans to curb the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus.

 

ECONOMIC CALAMITY

The restrictions have battered the U.S. economy, with mandatory business closures aimed at curbing the pathogen's spread leaving millions of Americans unemployed.

 

Fresh government data released on Wednesday gave another glimpse at the damage. Retail sales dropped by 8.7% in March, the government reported, the biggest decline since tracking began in 1992. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

 

In addition, output at U.S. factories declined by the most since 1946 as the pandemic fractured supply chains.

 

Economists believe the economy entered recession in March.

 

"The economy is almost in free fall," said Sung Won Sohn, a business economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Trump, who initially downplayed the coronavirus threat and then called for a reopening of the economy by April 12, now has embraced May 1 target date.

 

"There are a number of states - 19, 20 states - that really have had limited impact from it. So I think we will see some states that are - the governors feel that they're ready - we're poised to assist them with that reopening," Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told ABC's "Good Morning America."

 

Healthcare workers have faced unique health threats while working on the front lines trying to tackle the pandemic. Reuters has identified more than 50 nurses, doctors and medical technicians who have died after being diagnosed with COVID-19 or showing symptoms of it. At least 16 were in New York state.

 

"The emergency room is like a war zone," said Raj Aya, whose wife Madhvi Aya - a physician's assistant in Brooklyn - was one of the healthcare workers who died in New York.

 

(Reporting by Nathan Layne, Lucia Mutikani, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Maria Caspani, Lisa Shumaker, Gabriella Borter, Peter Szekely, Kristina Cooke and Jessica Resnick-Ault; Writing by Will Dunham and Maria Caspani; Editing by Frank McGurty, Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-16

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[bkk6060]

The frustration of the stupidity to not make masks mandatory at the beginning of all this, I will never understand.  

[Cryingdick]

19 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

The frustration of the stupidity to not make masks mandatory at the beginning of all this, I will never understand.  

 

They didn't have the masks anyway. The government had to rely on private corporations to source them or make them.

[Chomper Higgot]

11 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

 

They didn't have the masks anyway. The government had to rely on private corporations to source them or make them.

And who’s fault was that?

[Cryingdick]

39 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

And who’s fault was that?

 

Every admin since the CDC was invented. It took an outbreak to illustrate exactly how useless they are. 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Cryingdick

[Chomper Higgot]

25 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

 

Every admin since the CDC was invented. It took an outbreak to illustrate exactly how useless they are. 

Wasting 6 weeks doing nothin, but play down the risk, talking about hoaxes and shipping 17.8 tons of the very same PPE to China didn’t help though did it?!

[Cryingdick]

6 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Wasting 6 weeks doing nothin, but play down the risk, talking about hoaxes and shipping 17.8 tons of the very same PPE to China didn’t help though did it?!

 

My point stands you can engage in all the political masturbation you want to. My point that the CDC didn't even have enough masks for themselves stands. Oh keep social distance and sing happy birthday while you wash your hands. That is the limit of what they had. 

 

This was the very instance that agency was conceived for. Makes you wonder where the money went? Not even enough masks for their own people. That's not on Trump he isn't the one that oversaw the CDC for decades.

 

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Cryingdick

[Tug]

15 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

 

My point stands you can engage in all the political masturbation you want to. My point that the CDC didn't even have enough masks for themselves stands. Oh keep social distance and sing happy birthday while you wash your hands. That is the limit of what they had. 

 

This was the very instance that agency was conceived for. Makes you wonder where the money went? Not even enough masks for their own people. That's not on Trump he isn't the one that oversaw the CDC for decades.

 

 

Why did trump allow the bidding wars for the ppe?why did trump defund the cdc why did trump fire the head of the cdc and try to kill the rest of the organization ?why did trump down play call it a hoax and all the rest.what a refreshing thing it was to here gov Cumo speak factual concise fact and solution driven the only recommendation I would add if someone is flagrant about disobeying the mask distance rules they should be made to dig the graves for the dead

[Cryingdick]

Just now, Tug said:

Why did trump allow the bidding wars for the ppe?why did trump defund the cdc why did trump fire the head of the cdc and try to kill the rest of the organization ?why did trump down play call it a hoax and all the rest.what a refreshing thing it was to here gov Cumo speak factual concise fact and solution driven the only recommendation I would add if someone is flagrant about disobeying the mask distance rules they should be made to dig the graves for the dead

 

The CDC should have had decades before Trump. This didn't happen over night. This is over the course of a few different administrations as far as utter, complete, buffoonery.

 

Thank God we have Amazon and Apple to help us. Along with GM and Tesla. The thing is Trump wasn't in that long but Biden was. 

[UbonThani]

why r new yorkers getting it do bad?

[phantomfiddler]

From these U.S. figures one might conclude that this amounts to roughly 300 deaths per day over the winter months, in a country that has an average 8,500 deaths per day, 7,000 per day in the summer months. I have this sneaky feeling that these figures would not be considerably higher than those experienced a few years ago. Pneumonia, flu, and bronchitis have always been potential killers, especially in cold weather.

[Cryingdick]

26 minutes ago, UbonThani said:

why r new yorkers getting it do bad?

City people tend to have no grasp of how nature works.

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, Cryingdick said:

 

My point stands you can engage in all the political masturbation you want to. My point that the CDC didn't even have enough masks for themselves stands. Oh keep social distance and sing happy birthday while you wash your hands. That is the limit of what they had. 

 

This was the very instance that agency was conceived for. Makes you wonder where the money went? Not even enough masks for their own people. That's not on Trump he isn't the one that oversaw the CDC for decades.

 

 

You seem not to understand the point that when Trump ordered the 17.8 tons of PPE to be airlifted to China he was obviously aware that the response to the Pandemic relied on medical PPE.

 

He was aware and still did absolutely nothing to provide America with the supplies of medical PPE he knew America needed.

 

He was of course at that time playing down the threat and talking about hoaxes.

 

 

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

18 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

City people tend to have no grasp of how nature works.

You don’t seem to understand the part population density plays in the spread of contagious disease - itself a feature of ‘nature’.

[asiaexpat]

Regardless of the political aspects, the USA government has seriously fail in its basic duty to protect citizens. Now the world knows it is a myth that the USA has the best medical system in the world. USA medical system is no better than many third world countries unless you are rich. 

[Relocated]

Reading TVF, it seems all Americans are sick to death and it is a matter of time for US will collapse in a matter of days. Living in US, don't feel panic and everyone enjoys outdoor hike and off road every day while taking advantage of unexpected time off. Something doesn't make sense. I rarely see masks but it reports all wear mask in US in TVF. 

[kamahele]

2 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

 

Every admin since the CDC was invented. It took an outbreak to illustrate exactly how useless they are. 

actually there has been only one administration the past three years. Can blame them.

[kamahele]

24 minutes ago, Retarded said:

Reading TVF, it seems all Americans are sick to death and it is a matter of time for US will collapse in a matter of days. Living in US, don't feel panic and everyone enjoys outdoor hike and off road every day while taking advantage of unexpected time off. Something doesn't make sense. I rarely see masks but it reports all wear mask in US in TVF. 

Well America has surpassed all other countries in the world so far in infections and reported deaths so I can see why it may seem so dire. 

[Siamjim]

CDC > yearly 60,000 dies from common flu... MSM=CCP

Italy reported 99% deaths were older patents with underlying health issues

[phkauf]

1 hour ago, UbonThani said:

why r new yorkers getting it do bad?

Here are a few:

- very densely populated, with crowed transport, stores, restaurants and offices, similar to Tokyo and big cities in China, but virtually no one wears a mask in NYC. It's a cultural thing. I lived there for more than 20 years and it was rare to see any non-asian wear a mask. In Tokyo, it is expected that you wear a mask if you are sick so not to infect others. Just yesterday they finally required masks to be worn.

- the idiot Mayor was downplaying the potential severity of the virus as late as early-March telling people to go to the movies and see a Broadway show. He refused to close the schools until the Governor forced him. If they had taken it more seriously in early-March, things would not have been so bad.

- the city's hospital system is massively underfunded (decades long problem) and poorly designed for this type of problem. People just didn't go to the hospital for fear of getting sick there. A friend told me his buddies on the NYPD are responding to a huge spike in DOA calls from people unable or afraid to go to the hospital.

- NY'ers themselves are to blame since they have a very independent, arrogant attitude that they can do what they want (I'm guilty as charged as well) and don't need to play by the rules. Until things got really, really bad people just went about life as if nothing was different.

[Jonnapat]

Anyone remember "" it'll just go away, like a miracle""?

That was just 4 weeks ago. 

[Grace at Echo Lake]

It's mid-April.....and New Yorkers on just now being told to wear masks?!?  Must be a blue state.

[ChouDoufu]

6 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

From these U.S. figures one might conclude that this amounts to roughly 300 deaths per day over the winter months, in a country that has an average 8,500 deaths per day, 7,000 per day in the summer months. I have this sneaky feeling that these figures would not be considerably higher than those experienced a few years ago. Pneumonia, flu, and bronchitis have always been potential killers, especially in cold weather.

excellent.  you are skeptical of the sensational headlines, trying to put the new york numbers into historical context.

 

be aware, though, you might be accused of being a GOP troll, much like anyone who questions the meaning of canceled cellphone subscriptions or one-off urn deliveries is accused of being a CCP troll.

[stephenterry]

6 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

From these U.S. figures one might conclude that this amounts to roughly 300 deaths per day over the winter months, in a country that has an average 8,500 deaths per day, 7,000 per day in the summer months. I have this sneaky feeling that these figures would not be considerably higher than those experienced a few years ago. Pneumonia, flu, and bronchitis have always been potential killers, especially in cold weather.

The high USA daily mortality rate is caused by the four main diseases - heart attacks, strokes  - medical intervention mistakes!! - and cancers.  Add the flu and/or coronavirus death rate to these, and no wonder we're seeing death rates out of proportion.

 

The main cause of such death rates is the worst SAD diet on the planet, and as a consequence, low immunity levels that cannot combat the virus. As an aside, if humans stopped consuming meat products none of these deadly viruses would be passed from animals to humans. In modern societies, Factory Farms are an ideal contagion area - infect the animal, then eat it. About 60 percent of all human diseases and 75 percent of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, according to the researchers. Over 2 million people die each year from most human infections with zoonoses that come from livestock,...

[snowgard]

10 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

From these U.S. figures one might conclude that this amounts to roughly 300 deaths per day over the winter months, in a country that has an average 8,500 deaths per day, 7,000 per day in the summer months. I have this sneaky feeling that these figures would not be considerably higher than those experienced a few years ago. Pneumonia, flu, and bronchitis have always been potential killers, especially in cold weather.

Hard to believe that some people to stupid to understand numbers and statistics. 
Now it's around 2.500 death daily from corona in the US. How much would it be without all this restrictions?
Maybe 250.000 daily or more? Would this be ok for you?

[Stargeezr]

Oh the Trump supporters will not remember his past attitude and actions. Do not forget

that Trump is new to all this and with his massive brain, it takes time

for it to work.  Oh and they will come up with many more excuses to use

to defend their genius leader.

Geezer

[riclag]

On 4/16/2020 at 9:29 AM, asiaexpat said:

Regardless of the political aspects, the USA government has seriously fail in its basic duty to protect citizens. Now the world knows it is a myth that the USA has the best medical system in the world. USA medical system is no better than many third world countries unless you are rich. 

Perhaps you haven't heard its Unprecedented

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, riclag said:

Perhaps you haven't heard its Unprecedented

Except it is not. 

[Redline]

On 4/16/2020 at 7:29 AM, Cryingdick said:

 

Every admin since the CDC was invented. It took an outbreak to illustrate exactly how useless they are. 

 Because of the us government not funding-and many professionals left because of trump 

[Cryingdick]

37 minutes ago, Redline said:

 Because of the us government not funding-and many professionals left because of trump 

 

It shows they got $6 billion last year.  I expect a little more than being told to sing happy birthday three times while washing my hands on PSA for that kind of cheese. 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/budget/documents/fy2020/cdc-overview-factsheet.pdf