New York City, the hardest hit U.S. city in the coronavirus pandemic,
revised its official COVID-19 death toll sharply higher to more than
10,000 on Tuesday, to include victims presumed to have perished from the
lung disease but never tested.
The new cumulative figure for “confirmed and probable COVID-19
deaths” released by the New York City Health Department marked a
staggering increase of over 3,700 deaths formally attributed to the
highly contagious illness since March 11.
The 60 percent spike in reported deaths underscored the enormous
losses endured in the nation’s most populous city, where the sounds of
wailing sirens have echoed almost non-stop through largely empty streets
for weeks.
The city’s revised count, 10,367 in all, raised the number of
coronavirus deaths nationwide to more than 28,300 – New York accounting
for the biggest share of deaths.
With only a tiny fraction of the U.S. population tested for
coronavirus, the number of known infections climbed to more than 600,000
as of Tuesday, according to a running Reuters tally.
U.S. public health authorities have generally only attributed deaths
to COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus,
when patients tested positive for the virus.
New York City’s Health Department said it will now also count any
fatality deemed a “probable” coronavirus death, defined as a victim
whose “death certificate lists as a cause of death ‘COVID-19’ or an
equivalent.”
March 11 was used as the starting point because that was the date of the first confirmed coronavirus death, the city said.
“Behind every death is a friend, a family member, a loved on,” said
Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “We are focused on ensuring that
every New Yorker who died because of COVID-19 gets counted.”
The new approach in New York City could pave the way for similar
policies elsewhere across the country, possibly leading to a surge in
reported U.S. coronavirus mortality.
Even before Tuesday’s revision in New York City, the number of new
U.S. deaths on Tuesday had reached at least 2,228, the highest toll yet
in a single 24-hour period.
‘NOT A COMFORTABLE PLACE’
Louisiana, another coronavirus hot spot, and California also reported
record daily spikes in deaths on Tuesday, despite tentative signs
across the country in recent days the outbreak was beginning to ebb.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state’s healthcare network was
strained to breaking point by a wave of COVID-19 hospitalizations, had
said on Monday it appeared “the worst is over.”
Health officials have cautioned that death figures are a lagging
indicator of the outbreak, coming after the most severely ill patients
fall sick, and do not mean stay-at-home restrictions are failing to curb
transmissions.
New York state and some other hard-hit areas continue to report sharp
decreases in hospitalizations and numbers of patients on ventilators,
although front-line healthcare workers and resources remained under
extraordinary stress.
“The plateau is not a very comfortable place to live,” David Reich,
president of New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, said in a telephone
interview. “So I don’t think people should be celebrating prematurely.”
That cautious note was also sounded by President Donald Trump’s top
infectious disease adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said Trump’s May 1
target for restarting the economy was “overly optimistic”.
Fauci, echoing many governors, said in an Associated Press interview
that health officials must first be able to test for the virus quickly,
isolate new cases and track down new infections.
At his daily White House briefing later in the day, Trump said he was
close to completing a plan for ending America’s coronavirus shutdown,
which has thrown millions out of work, and may forge ahead with
restarting the battered U.S. economy in some parts of the country even
before May 1.
The president took renewed aim at the World Health Organization at
the briefing, saying he has instructed his administration to halt U.S.
funding to the Geneva-based institution over its handling of the
pandemic.
MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
Trump, a Republican who before the outbreak touted a vibrant economy
as a pillar of his Nov. 3 re-election bid, earlier lashed out at
Democratic state governors, after Cuomo said he would refuse any
presidential order to reopen the economy too soon.
“Tell the Democrat Governors that ‘Mutiny On The Bounty’ was one of
my all time favorite movies,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday,
referring to a classic film about an 18th-century rebellion against the
commanding officer of a British naval vessel.
But Trump toned down his remarks at the White House briefing saying
he would “authorize” governors – despite doubts from some experts that
the presidency has such powers – to implement plans in their states at
the appropriate time.
Cuomo, a Democrat, and governors of six other northeastern states
have announced they are coordinating on a regional plan to gradually
lift restrictions. The governors of California, Oregon and Washington
formed a similar West Coast regional pact.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Oregon Governor Kate Brown, both
Democrats, on Tuesday offered frameworks for eventually restarting
public life and business in their states.
Some Republicans, including the governors of Ohio, Maryland and New
Hampshire, also said states have the right to decide when and how to
reopen.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa/new-york-city-posts-sharp-spike-in-coronavirus-deaths-after-untested-victims-added-idUSKCN21W20G
