The death toll in the US from the coronavirus crossed the10,000-mark on Monday as the country entered the most difficult phase duringthis pandemic with officials stating that there are encouraging signs in thefight against the dreaded disease mainly due to the aggressive implementationof the mitigation measures.
By Monday, more than 10,800 Americans died due to the deadlycoronavirus and over 366,000 tested positive, to which top American scientistsare racing against time to develop either a vaccine or a successful treatment.
Globally it has infected more than 13 lakhs people andresulted in the death of more than 74,000.
In New York, the epicenter of COVID-19 in the US, thefatalities on Monday increased to 4,758 and confirmed cases to 130,000, withofficials saying that new cases and deaths have now slowed down in the BigApple.
Members of the White House Task Force on coronavirus saidthat the new models based on fresh data projects less than 100,000 deathagainst the previous projections between 100,000 and 200,000. This has beenmainly due to the aggressive implementation of the mitigation strategy.
“We are increasingly hopeful that the aggressivemitigation strategy we put into place will ultimately allow our hospitalssystem to successfully manage that major influx of cases that we have rightnow,” Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference.
The goal is that all Americans have been sacrificing toachieve these last few weeks things that a lot of people thought were notpossible to achieve, he said.
“I think we’ve more than achieved, but we have to gothrough. Again, we’re going to have a rough week, were going to have maybe arough little more than a week but there’s tremendous light at the end of thattunnel, he said.
According to the president, there are so many thingshappening with therapeutics, and with vaccines.
“Those therapeutics, the vaccines are going to bealways a little bit later because of that testing period, but the therapeutics,getting the kind of things that I heard about today talking to these brilliantcompanies and brilliant people on the phone was fantastic,” he said.
Currently there are 10 different therapeutic agents inactive trials and some are looking incredibly successful, he said, adding thatanother 15 are in plans for clinical trials. A second company announced thatthe US Food and Drug Administration has authorised its vaccine candidate tobegin critical trials, he said.
Dr Deborah Brix, member of the White House Task Force oncoronavirus, told Fox News on Monday that the drop in new cases in New York andother places shows American people are following the presidential guidelines:social distancing, not gathering in groups any groups, over time trying to keepgoing out to an absolute minimum. getting drive through, getting carry out,getting delivery services, and really protecting all Americans,
We know this is a very transmittable virus and having allAmericans pulled together in this moment of great need as a nation. It isreally inspirational, she said.
We are really beginning to see the impact of the sacrificethat Americans have made for each other. And we’re in a call to action for thisnext 26 days or 25 days to really ensure that we’re doing everything we can tostop the spread of this virus we can do it as a nation,” she said.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Texas reported 464 more cases of thenew coronavirus, an increase of about 7 per cent over the previous day, bringingthe total number of known cases to 7,319.
In a press conference on Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbotsaid there have been 85,357 Texans who have been tested for the COVID-19 and7,319 have tested positive.
Governor Abbott provided an update on personal protectiveequipment (PPE) distribution throughout the state of Texas.
“It is vital that our health care workers and firstresponders on the front lines have the personal protective equipment they needto stay safe as they respond to COVID-19, said Abbott said.
He also said that Texas received 2.5 million masks in thepast 24 hours, and will receive an additional 3 million masks by April 11.
“The only states that have administered more tests thanTexas are those with more dire consequences with regard to people in theirstates,” he said.
“All of the states that have tested more than Texashave more deaths. We have more than enough testing data in order to form themodels that we need to make the assessments and determinations based uponscience and data to understand the correct strategy for Texas.”
In an executive order last month, Abbott closed all publicschools through May 4. Some districts have told students and parents theircampuses will be closed “until further notice.”
Abbott also issued a warning to those not taking theself-quarantine orders seriously. The more patient Texans are and the longerthey stay at home, the safer everyone will be.