The United States on Thursday surpassed the confirmed number of COVID-19 cases recorded by China, the nation were the outbreak began. With the third most populous country surpassing 83,000 cases, the United States has now become the epicenter of the world.
There have been mixed messages from the Trump administration about the severity of the virus and extent of the stay-at-home policies that more than a third of the nation is under. The full number of cases cannot be quantified due to the nation's slow jump to action in testing. Now the United States in under a bigger threat: the shortage of masks and protective gear for health care workers as well as desperately needed ventilators.
Total Global Cases: Over 520,000
Total Deaths: At Least 23,000
Total Recovered: At Least 123,000
Emergency Protocol
The growing outbreak in New York, the state with the most confirmed cases at over 37,000, has led to doctors trying emergency procedures to combat the great influx of intensive care patients.
A hospital system in Manhattan has begun treating two patients at a time on one ventilator, a desperate measure to help treat more patients despite the shortage of the critical breathing machine.
According to the New York Times, ventilator sharing has only been used twice in crisis situations in the United States: after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting and by Dr. Marco Garrone to help treat the coronavirus. This is the first known time that this emergency protocol is being used as a long term strategy in the United States.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has approved the method on Thursday. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a device called VESper which adapts one ventilator to be able to use on up to four patients.
Presidential Orders
On Thursday, President Donald Trump issued a letter to governors where he laid out his vision for the "next phase" in the war on the coronavirus pandemic. Trump outlined in his letter that his administration planned to develop criteria to "help classify counties with respect to continued risks posed by," the coronavirus.
Counties across the 50 states would be divided into three categories of risk: low, medium and high. The categories of risk would be accompanied by guidelines for policymakers to make decision whether to maintain, decrease, or increase their own coronavirus halting measures.
Trump is still anticipating the United States to restart on April 12, a move that health officials have warned could lead to tens of thousand of additional infections.
No Jobs
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that in the week ending March 21 the United States jobless claims exceeded 3.2 million. The record breaking spike was within the range that economists had predict, though it surpassed many expectations and shows the start of the economic impact brought by the coronavirus.
"This morning's data leaves no doubt that the economy is currently in a recession, said Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank AG
However, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was not worried about the record-setting unemployment filing numbers, stating that they "right not aren't relevant." Mnuchin believes that the $2 trillion stimulus package that is moving through Capital Hill will be help alleviate the income losses and other financial impact from the pandemic.
Make sure to stay up-to-end on news and confirmed case numbers on our Live Coronavirus Tracker.
