US: COVID-19 takes near 3,000 lives

The “15 days to slow the spread” ends today across America but Americans will continue to practice physical distancing for at least another month. The COVID-19 Pandemic has continued to spread across America as the surge has caused almost 160,000 cases and near 3,000 deaths. White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, MD, spoke yesterday on Meet the Press, warned that other cities could soon look like New York.

Brix said, “No state or metro area will be spared.” Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, MD, spoke to CNN yesterday and said that the outbreaks in New York City and New Orleans are very dangerous. 29 states, 79 counties, and 14 cities have placed the shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders, according to a New York Times nationwide map.

248 million Americans have been affected by those orders. The majority of these people have been deemed non-essential workers, encouraged to shutter businesses temporarily or work from home. The most recent states to issue statewide stay-at-home orders are Virginia and Maryland. United States has reported around 15,000 new cases each day for the past five days. According to USA Today’s online tracker, 20,000 new cases were reported today.

The total confirmed cases 160,020 with 2,953 deaths. The hardest-hit state is New York with a total of 1,218 fatalities with 66,497 cases. New York City has 37,453 cases. NYC Health said that 42% of confirmed cases have been in adults ages 18 to 44. The surprising aspect is that only 17% of cases have been in adults over the age of 65.

We have been playing catch-up from day 1; you never win playing catch up,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo today at a press conference. “If you wait to prepare for the storm to hit, it is too late, my friends.” The Governor has warned that New York has yet to see the peak, and it is not likely to happen for another 2 weeks.