US surpasses China and Italy in coronavirus cases becoming world epicenter
The United States now has the most coronavirus cases in the world with more than 81,321 infected and more than 1,000 dead.
America surpassed both China and Italy in total cases on Thursday evening, according to The New York Times.
The outbreak has caused the country’s economy to come to a grinding halt as more than 3.3 million unemployment claims were recently filed, according to the Labor Department. The jump in unemployment is the largest the country has ever seen.
‘It’s nobody’s fault. certainly not in this country….we got very lucky when we made the decision not to allow people in from China from a very early date,’ Trump said on Thursday when asked about unemployment, although he gave no context for how Chinese travelers were related to the unemployment increase.
In a historic attempt to right the economy, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that the House will pass the $2 trillion stimulus bill, the biggest financial package in US history, on Friday to respond to the global health emergency.
The measure will send direct payments of $1,200 to Americans earning up to $75,000 a year. The payment would be gradually reduced the more a person makes annually, but they are capped off at $99,000 per year.
New York has been the country’s epicenter of the outbreak as the number of those hospitalized with Covid-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus, increased 40% over the last 24-hours. At least 100 people died of the disease overnight in the state.
The state now has more than 37,700 cases total and at least 385 deaths.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been begging the federal government for help as hospitals across the state are experiencing dwindling supplies.
Cuomo said the state is expecting to need 140,000 hospital beds – but they only have 53,000. He also said projections show the state will need 4,000 ventilators, despite having less than 10,000 of the devices right now.
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