The sum of known US COVID-19 cases soared to more than 100,000, with more than 1,600 dead, as weary doctors and nurses coping with shortages resorted to extremes ranging from hiding scarce medical supplies to buying them on the black market.
Doctors have been especially concerned about a shortage of ventilators, machines that help patients breathe and are widely needed for those with the highly contagious novel coronavirus.
Hospitals have also sounded the alarm about scarcities of drugs, oxygen tanks and trained staff.
Photo: Bloomberg
The number of confirmed infections in the US on Friday rose by about 18,000, the biggest jump in a single day, to more than 103,000. The US has led the world in coronavirus cases since its count of known infections eclipsed those of China and Italy on Thursday.
With at least 1,634 lives lost as of Friday night — also a record daily increase — the US ranked sixth in national death tolls from the pandemic, a Reuters tabulation of official data showed.
Alexander Salerno of Salerno Medical Associates in northern New Jersey described going through a “broker” to pay US$17,000 for masks and other protective equipment that should have cost about US$2,500, and picking them up at an abandoned warehouse.
US President Donald Trump on Friday issued an order that seeks to force General Motors to produce ventilators for coronavirus patients under the US’ Defense Production Act.
Negotiations with the automaker had been productive, “but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course,” Trump said.
Trump also signed an unprecedented US$2.2 trillion economic rescue package into law, after swift and near-unanimous action by the US Congress to support businesses, rush resources to overburdened healthcare providers and help struggling families during the deepening pandemic.
The legislation is to accelerate government payments of US$1,200 to most Americans and increase jobless benefits for millions of people thrown out of work.
Businesses big and small are to receive loans, grants and tax breaks. It would also send unprecedented billions to states and local governments, as well as the nation’s all but overwhelmed healthcare system.
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