Tuesday March 24, 2020
New center of the corona crisis?
New York laments “astronomical” increases
–
With more than 25,000 cases, New York is already the American epicenter of the corona crisis. But the “worrying” surge in infections has only just begun. The virus spreads like a “bullet train”.
The governor of the US state of New York has sounded the alarm in the face of a dramatic increase in coronavirus infections. Democrat Andrew Cuomo spoke of “worrying and astronomical numbers”. The number of infections doubles every three days.
“We haven’t flattened the curve, the curve is growing,” Cuomo said at a conference center that is currently being converted into an emergency hospital. The pandemic does not roll through the country like a “freight train”, as predicted by an expert, but like a “high-speed train”.
The governor warned that the number of hospital beds required for intensive care patients could rise to 40,000 at the height of the pandemic. To date, only 3,000 such beds have been available in the state. Cuomo therefore called on the US government to provide New York with thousands of additional ventilators. He has no problem converting university or hotel dormitories into hospitals, Cuomo said. “I will turn this state upside down”.
New York is now the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. According to Cuomos, more than 25,000 cases of infection have been confirmed in the state on the east coast, around 14,900 of them in New York City. At least 150 people were killed in the state.
More than 46,800 infections and more than 590 deaths have been confirmed nationwide, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. The World Health Organization (WHO) therefore warned that the US could soon replace Europe as the new epicenter of the pandemic.
– .
