Washington: US deaths due to coronavirus topped 14,600, the second-highest reported number in the world after New York reported 799 deaths in a day.
US officials warned Americans to expect alarming numbers of coronavirus deaths this week, even as an influential university model on Wednesday scaled back its projected US pandemic death toll by 26% to 60,000.
On Tuesday, US deaths set a new daily record with over 1,900 new deaths reported in a single day, according to a Reuters tally.
New York, the hardest-hit state in America, on Wednesday reported its highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in a single day with even veteran doctors and nurses expressing shock at the speed with which patients were declining and dying.
The number of coronavirus cases in New York state alone approached 150,000 on Wednesday, even as authorities warned the state’s official death tally may understate the true number.
“Every number is a face, “ said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ordered flags flown at half-staff across New York in recognition of the toll. “This virus attacked the vulnerable and attacked the weak and it’s our job as a society to protect the vulnerable.”
Doctors and nurses say it isn’t just elderly or patients with underlying health conditions who appear to be fine one minute and at death’s door the next. It can happen for the young and healthy, too.
Patients “look fine, feel fine, then you turn around and they’re unresponsive,” said Diana Torres, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, where the virus has infected more than 415,000 people. “I’m paranoid, scared to walk out of their room.”
Cuomo said 779 people died in the past day in his state. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said 275 had died there. Both totals exceeded one-day records reported just a day earlier.
Despite the grim tally, Cuomo said overall trends still appeared positive. Cuomo cited a drop in new hospitalizations and other data points as evidence that New York was “bending the curve” and gaining some control over the infection rate.
Cuomo said the death count would continue at the current level or increase in the coming days as critically ill patients, who have been hospitalized for more than a week and on ventilator machines to assist in breathing, die.
