Washington: The number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the United States have surpassed 104,000 with 1,700 casualties so far.
Trump administration has approved a financial stimulus package amounting ti US$2.2 trillion to assist American public in this unprecedented economic and financial crisis. Trump administration has also invoked the Defence Production Act (DPA) to increase the production of essential health care equipment to deal with the virus outbreak in the country.
New York State has been the epicentre of virus outbreak in the US with more than 44,635 confirmed coronavirus cases, with over 25,398 cases in New York City alone.
Until widespread testing is done, the full scope and scale of the New York (and national) outbreak will not be clear, and in the meantime, spikes in the number of confirmed cases will likely reflect an increase in testing.
A temporary 2,900-bed hospital has been established at the Javits Convention Centre to deal with the virus outbreak in the State. The New York has 53,000 hospital beds but officials project they will need 140,000 at the height of the crisis in three weeks’ time.
The Javits conversion is one of four temporary hospitals that will open in the New York area within the next two weeks. Three other locations include dormitories at two State University of New York campuses on Long Island.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked President Trump to approve the construction of four more temporary hospitals.
The Navy hospital ship, USNS Comfort, has 12 operating rooms and 1,200 will further act as 1,000-bed hospital to deal with overwhelming number of COVID-19 patients.
In addition, Louisiana is emerging as the next US coronavirus hot spot. According to the Louisiana Department of Health, more than 2,300 people in the state have tested positive for COVID-19 and 119 people have died with another 300 on ventilators.
