USA becomes epi-centre of COVID-19: 104,000 confirmed cases

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With more than 104,000 confirmed cases of the novel Coronavirus, the United States is now the epicentre of the global pandemic. 1711 people have died while 894 have recovered as of today. New York is the worst affected state in the United States with 7,000 new cases announced yesterday alone. There are a total of 46,262 patients thus far, and the death toll has climbed to 606.

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said yesterday that his state has secured about half of the 30,000 ventilators it needs. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, has promised to provide New York with hundreds of ventilators to help meet demand from the growing coronavirus outbreak.

The U.S. Navy hospital ship “Mercy” arrived at the Port of Los Angeles to relieve local medical pressure as the number of new confirmed cases continued to surge in the metropolitan area.

The ship, carrying around 1,200 Navy medical personnel and support staff, will provide 1,000 hospital beds and eight intensive care beds as a “referral hospital” to treat non-COVID-19 patients. It will help relieve the strain being put on local hospitals by the COVID-19 pandemic but will not provide any tests or treatment for COVID-19 cases.

New Jersey is the state with the second-highest number of cases with 8825 and 108 deaths thus far.  California has reported 114 new cases today to bring the total to 5019 with 8 new deaths bringing the total deaths to 110.

The latest numbers come as President Trump signed a sweeping $2 trillion Coronavirus spending package into law. In addition, US President Donald Trump has also ordered General Motors to make ventilators for Coronavirus patients by invoking the Korean War-era Defense Production Act, which allows a President to force companies to make products for national defence.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States would produce 100,000 ventilators in 100 days.