With over 188,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of April 13, the US state of New York has more cases of the novel coronavirus than Spain and Italy, the epicenters of the European outbreak.
The United States has seen the largest outbreak of COVID-19 in the world, with 555,049 cases and 21,994 deaths, far surpassing figures of any other country.
The east coast state of New York has more than 10,000 fatalities, claiming nearly half of the country’s COVID-19 death toll and recording 2,000 deaths a day for four days in a row.
However, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is leading the US government’s coronavirus response as the Trump administration’s top infectious disease specialist, still has hope for the state. Fauci thinks that the coronavirus will eventually likely level out in New York.
“We are hoping to see a rather sharp decrease and decline in the cases of New York,” said Fauci during an appearance on MSNBC.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shares Fauci’s optimism, saying “the curve continues to flatten” during a press conference today. However, he has stressed that his state’s hospitals are hard hit by the virus and need a total of 37,000 ventilators for patients in critical condition.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said today that the number of new severe cases has gone down, with only 70 patients a day on ventilators compared to 200 to 300 a week ago.
New York City needs more COVID-19 testing kits and protective gear for hospitals, the mayor added.
Several other states have been hit hard by the coronavirus, with numerous cases in Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Each of these individual states has seen over 20,000 coronavirus cases.
If the current stay-at-home orders are lifted, public health experts believe American COVID-19 deaths could reach 200,000.
A Department of Homeland Security official confirmed recent governmental data which illustrates a possible increase in COVID-19 infections if the orders are lifted after 30 days.
Most of the government restrictions, including emergency orders, came from state governors and not the federal government.
Despite this, Trump has said that everything will soon return to normal soon. Trump plans to reopen the economy on May 1.
“People want to get back, they want to get back to work. We have to bring our country back,” he said during a phone call with Fox News on April 11.
