(Newswire.net — March 28, 2020) — As the number of Americans infected with Covid-19 passed 85,000, the US surpasses China, according to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, with 85,840 cases the US surpassed Italy (80,589) and China (81,782). Italy, however, still holds the record in a number of fatalities reporting hundreds of deaths every 24h.
To this day, Covid-19 killed 1,177 people in the US alone but that number will be significantly higher by the end of the week. On Thursday there have been 150 new cases of death due to Covid-19 complications.
On Thursday, the number of infected people around the world surpassed half a billion (525,000).
When asked about the new record of infected Americans US President Donald Trump said the surprise occurred as “a tribute to our testing,” suggesting new cases are revealed not (only) because of the spread of the disease but also due to the improved discovery methods. He also expressed his doubts about China’s report on the number of infected in that country because testing was not as sophisticated as it is in the US.
China is the first country that sealed its citizens in social isolation to stop spreading the virus and the first country to gradually lift restrictions while the rest of the world is just starting with isolation. There are some occasional rises in the number of infected in China but the main wave has passed and life is returning to normal in Wuhan, the Covid-19 epicenter and in other Chinese multimillion cities that were struck with the outbreak.
China still has its borders closed for foreigners, also limiting all airlines to a single weekly flight in and out of the country starting this weekend, Russia Today reports.
Facing one of the world’s highest fatality rates, Italy was the Covid-19 hot spot for the spread of the virus in Europe, but with a population some five times greater than that of Italy, the US is becoming the next one. However, the number of people is not a key variable to these statistics as India’s lockdown movement left some 1.3 billion people with harsh restrictions.
Widespread lockdowns and stay-at-home orders have ground large sectors of the US economy to a halt, driving more than 3 million Americans to apply for unemployment benefits, smashing previous records – including at the height of the 2008 financial meltdown, the RT reports.
The US Senate passed a $2 trillion stimulus package on Wednesday as a one-off measure sending $1,200 checks to anyone earning less than $75,000 annually. Also, the stimulus provides loan guarantees for small businesses helping the US economy to recover in the times of the Corona.
Besides aiding the economy, the financial measures are also intended to create funds for expanded testing for the virus.