Number of coronavirus cases in US overtake Italy and China
The US has become the global epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, as the number of confirmed cases surpassed China and Italy.
The US has more than 86,000 positive tests, surpassing China’s 81,782 cases and Italy, the epicentre of the outbreak in Europe, which has confirmed 80,589 cases.
However, the death toll in the US, which stands at 1,300, lags behind China (3,291) and Italy (8,215).
Nearly half of all cases in the US have been in New York state, which has confirmed more than 37,800 positive tests. Almost 400 people have died.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo warned that the shortage of ventilators is “astronomical” and is expect to worsen.
President Donald Trump dismissed the figures and said it was “a tribute to the amount of testing that we’re doing”. Vice President Mike Pence said coronavirus tests were available in all states and 552,000 had been conducted nationwide.
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Trump also cast doubt on the figures coming out of China: “You don’t know what the numbers are in China.”
Trump predicted the nation would return to work “pretty quickly” and set a goal of Easter Sunday to reopen the country.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration and senators reached a $2 trillion agreement to alleviate the economic impact of the pandemic.
Part of the package includes checks to help Americans pay bills during job layoffs related to the outbreak. It also expands unemployment insurance and delivers emergency loans to small businesses.
It came ahead of new employment figures which showed the number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits had skyrocketed to 3.3m.
It comes as a study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the Universit of Washington estimated coronavirus-related deaths in the US could top 80,000.
As many as 2,300 patients could be dying every day by April, even if people observe strict social distancing.