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WHO
WARNS U.S. COULD
BECOME CORONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC’S NEW
EPICENTER
Most
Of The World’s New Cases Are Coming From Europe And North America.
25
March, 2020
The
World Health Organization says the U.S. has the potential to become
the next epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
During
a teleconference with reporters, spokeswoman Margaret Harris was
asked specifically if the U.S. might overtake Europe as the new
epicenter. She replied:
“We
are now seeing a very large acceleration in the numbers of cases from
the United States—so it does have that potential. We cannot say
that is the case yet, but it does have that potential.”
Harris
told reporters the main drivers of the outbreak continue to remain in
Europe, but she said the WHO is seeing many of the same issues in the
U.S. She added that 85 percent of the cases reported in the past 24
hours had come from Europe and the U.S.
She
also suggested Western countries were not yet doing enough to defeat
the coronavirus:
“A
lot of countries are now taking very strong measures to distance
people, to really quarantine entire societies, and these have been
shown to be an important way of slowing down this spread of the virus
and buying some time. But to defeat the virus, to stop it, countries
also need very aggressive targeted tactics, testing every suspected
case, isolating and caring for every person known to be ill and also
tracing and quarantining and finding every close contact.”
During
his live tele-town hall from the White House, President Donald Trump
told FOX News host Bill Hemmer:
“I
give it two weeks. I guess by Monday or Tuesday, it’s about two
weeks. We will assess at that time and give it more time if we need a
little more time. We have to open this country up … opened up and
just raring to go by Easter.”
Toward
the end of the town hall, when it was just a one-on-one conversation
with Hemmer, the president said he’d love to see the churches of
America full on Easter Sunday:
“Easter
is a very special day for me. And I see sort of in that timeline that
I’m thinking about, and I say, wouldn’t it be great to have all
of the churches full — you know, the churches aren’t allowed
essentially to have much of a congregation there and most of them, I
watched on Sunday online and it was terrific, by the way, but online
is never going to be like being there. So I think Easter Sunday and
you’ll have packed churches all over our country, I think it would
be a beautiful time, and it’s just about the timeline that I think
is right. It gives us more chance to work on what we’re doing and
I’m not sure that’s going to be the day but I would love to aim
it right at Easter Sunday so we are open for church service and
services generally on Easter Sunday, that would be a beautiful
thing.”
Meanwhile,
in a long Twitter thread, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Director Tom Inglesby is warning against the president’s suggestion
he may re-open the country as early as next week:
“Anyone
advising the end of social distancing now needs to fully understand
what the country will look like if we do that. COVID would spread
widely, rapidly, terribly, and could kill potentially millions in the
year ahead with huge social and economic impact across the country.
Before considering big changes to social distancing measures now, we
should as quickly as possible get to strongest possible position for
COVID response—we’re nowhere near that now.”
Inglesby
said that he would welcome “science-informed dialogue” about what
businesses could remain opening as long as social distancing is put
into place. But, he added, Americans need to press ahead—at least
for now—with closed schools, mass telecommuting, no gatherings, and
a strong advisory to stay home, which will help slow the pandemic.
(Photo
Credit: World Health Organization)
New
York City becomes the
new Wuhan: Big Apple now
the new US epicenter
of
global coronavirus pandemic
24
March, 2020
By
far, most cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) in America have
occurred in states along both U.S. coastlines, but one of them —
New York — has emerged as the U.S. “epicenter” for the disease.
As
reported by CNBC,
New York City now accounts for nearly half of all coronavirus cases
in the country.
According
to World
Meters,
which tracks the virus’ spread in the U.S. in real time, as of this
writing there were nearly 25,000 cases of coronavirus in the country;
almost 12,000 of them are in New York, where there were 3,247 new
cases diagnosed within the previous 24-hour period.
Included
in the NYC total, the financial news network reported, are 53 NYPD
officers, according to city officials.
“We
are now the epicenter of this crisis,” NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio
told reporters Friday, when the number of confirmed cases only stood
at about 5,200.
CNBC
notes further:
The
mayor said he’s been warning people that the city will run out of
protective gear for medical workers in two or three weeks if cases
keep rising at this rate.
“If
you feel afraid, you’re not alone, if you’re anxious you are not
alone,” he said. “New Yorkers are so strong. There are other
places in this country this might be a particularly shock to the
system, but here … we are tough people by nature.”
The
mayor, who has issued orders for New Yorkers to stay inside if at all
possible, said if they must venture out to keep six feet away from
other people. He also said that for now the city won’t be approving
any permits for events or sports in parks, though people can still
use them.
Meanwhile,
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued a similar lock-down for the
entire state. He said Friday he believes that coronavirus cases will
likely peak in about 45 days, but CNBC did not say what information
he was using as a base for his estimate.
‘This is the most drastic action we can take’
While
cases skyrocket in New York City, health officials working with state
and local government agencies are scrambling to find needed supplies
and extra hospital beds. Cuomo said he believes that eventually there
will be as many as 110,000 people hospitalized at the virus’ peak,
but the state only has 53,000 hospital beds. (Related: 6
Natural ways to strengthen the immune system amid the coronavirus
outbreak.)
In
his order, Cuomo instructed non-essential businesses to keep 100
percent of their employees working from home. He also put in
stringent new restrictions on NYC residents that begin Sunday.
“When
I talk about the most drastic action we can take, this is the most
drastic action we can take,” Cuomo said at a press conference in
Albany. “This is not life as usual. Accept it. Realize it and
deal with it.”
Overall, according
to The
Epoch Times,
more than 70 million Americans have been ordered to remain at home
under various restrictions and emergency declarations issued by
governors and mayors around the country.
“I
fully recognize that in some cases I am choosing between saving
people’s lives and saving their livelihoods,” Illinois Gov. JB
Pritzker said Friday when he issued an order for residents to remain
at home as much as possible. “But ultimately, you can’t have a
livelihood without a life.”
The
moves were praised by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), during a press
conference in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve
been very successful in doing that with China and with Europe. Now we
have the northern and southern border issues,” he said. “There’s
a fundamental public health reason for doing that, because we cannot
be preventing people from coming in from one area when they can
actually go into the other.”
Sources
include:
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