US President Donald Trump has expanded the role of the US Army in the fight against deadly coronavirus, saying that no one is better prepared to fight the current situation which is like a war. US till Friday reported 7,380 deaths and at least 276,500 infections due to the deadly coronavirus, the highest for any country in the world.
"We are expanding the role of the Armed Forces in our response effort because no one is better prepared to win a war of the United States military, and we are in a war. Invisible enemy, Trump told reporters during a press briefing as he described New York as the hotspot of this war.
On Friday, the number of those infected by coronavirus (COVID-19) in the New York state alone crossed 100,000 and the deaths touched 3,000. It's neighbouring New Jersey followed up with nearly 30,000 infections and 646 deaths.
Members of the White House task force on coronavirus expect the deadly disease to peak in the next 10 days. Various models have predicted between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in the next few months, during which a large number of people are likely to be infected.
As such, the administration would require thousands of new hospital beds and thousands of ventilators along with face masks and other medical supplies. Overall, the US on Friday in a single day added more than 33,000 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total to 276,500.
In just one day more than 1,550 Americans lost their lives taking the fatalities to over 7,380. More than 90 per cent of the country's 330 million population are under strict stay-in-home order and major disaster declaration has been announced for over three dozen States.
"Louisiana is getting hit very hard. Parts of Michigan are getting hit very, very dark. New Jersey is surprisingly it's much greater than anybody would have thought they are doing a really good job, he said.
The Javits Convention Center in New York that has been converted overnight into a 2,500 beds hospital by the army would now be manned by the armed forces as well, he said.
"Over 9,000 retired army medical personnel have answered their nation's call and are now supporting field hospitals and medical facilities all across the country, he said. The Army Corps of Engineers has assessed more than 100 facilities in all 50 states, he said.
They are rapidly building temporary hospitals and alternative care sites in many states in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Ohio, Trump added.
Neighboring New Jersey follows, then California and Washington state, then Michigan and Illinois in the Midwest, with clusters focused in major cities.
States or areas that haven't yet experienced surges should not be complacent, said Doctor Thomas Tsai, a general surgeon and professor of health policy at Harvard.
"The United States isn't one monolith, there are 50 different states with different government responses from governors and state public health departments," he told AFP.
"I think what's needed is a truly national coordinated effort," said Tsai, warning that continuing with a "patchwork response" on people's movements would lead to other states seeing the types of surge experienced in places like New York.
confirmed cases has remained relatively low so far -- 1.5 percent, compared to 7.7 percent in Spain and 10 percent in Italy.
Will this trend continue? The short answer is we don't know, and the experts are divided.
"Low CFR (case fatality rate) is not reassuring," David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, told AFP.
"It will rise because it takes people time to die. My best guess is that the US is on the cusp of an absolutely disastrous outbreak."
The experts agreed that nationwide social distancing measures were urgently needed to continue to try to "flatten the curve" -- slowing the rate of infection so that hospitals aren't overrun, as the case is currently in New York.
But from a scientific point of view, the pathogen could "down mutate" and become less virulent as time goes on, said Kelen, as similar viruses typically do.
The heat and humidity of summer could also slow its spread, experts have said.
Forecasters at the University of Washington's School of Medicine believe the peak of the outbreak may come in mid-April with more than 80,000 deaths, based on current trends.
Their model suggests 38,000 deaths at the lower end and 162,000 at the higher end.
By way of comparison, influenza and pneumonia killed 34,000 people in the 2018-2019 flu season.
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