U.S. SOCIAL DISTANTCING TO CONTINUE UNTIL END OF APRIL
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump dangled the possibility of reopening the U.S. economy by Easter. Now he has changed his mind. At a White House Rose Garden briefing, Trump extended the current guidelines on social distancing until April 30, keeping the United States in line with measures taken by other nations gripped by the coronavirus pandemic to keep their populations at home. The United States has the highest number of coronavirus cases worldwide at 143,025, according to Johns Hopkins University.
How high will the death toll be? A senior member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, told CNN the outbreak could cause 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in the United States alone before qualifying his estimate, “I just don’t think that we really need to make a projection, when it’s such a moving target that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people,” he said.
In New York, the state worst hit by coronavirus in terms of total numbers infected and total deaths, steps are being taken to extend capacity in an overwhelmed hospital system. Today, a 1,000-bed temporary hospital opens in Manhattan’s Javits Center, a 68-bed overflow field hospital is near completion in Central Park, and a U.S. Navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, is due to dock in New York city, having made the journey from Norfolk, Virginia.
How prepared are U.S. hospitals for a surge in cases? Compared to other wealthy nations, the United States lags behind on several key measures. The United States has fewer practicing physicians, fewer hospital-employed physicians, and a lower number of hospitals per capita than most wealthy nations, according to data compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. It also has a lower number of hospital beds per 1,000 people: 2.8 compared to South Korea’s 12.
Perhaps most worrying in a pandemic, Americans are more likely to forgo medical care due to its cost: In 2016, 33 percent of Americans reported they either did not see a doctor when they were sick, skipped a medical test or treatment, or did not fill a prescription because of the cost in the past year.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/30/morning-brief-trump-extends-coronavirus-lockdown-april-30/