The death toll in the US from the COVID-19 pandemic eclipsed Italy’s for the highest in the world, surpassing 20,000, as Pope Francis livestreamed Easter Mass from a virtually empty Saint Paul’s Cathedral in the Vatican amid worldwide lockdowns.
With the New York area still deep in crisis, fear mounted over the spread of the scourge into the US’ heartland. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been going around the city telling groups of people to “break it up.”
The outbreak’s epicenter has shifted from China to Europe and the US, which now has by far the largest number of confirmed cases — more than 530,000 — and a death toll of 20,608, higher than Italy’s count of 19,468, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Photo: AFP
The death rate — the number of dead relative to the population — is still far higher in Italy than in the US, which has more than five times as many people.
Worldwide, the true numbers of dead and infected are believed to be much higher because of testing shortages, different counting practices and concealment by some governments.
About half the deaths in the US were in the New York metropolitan area, where hospitalizations are nevertheless slowing, and other indicators suggest lockdowns and social distancing are “flattening the curve” of infections and staving off the doomsday scenarios of just a week or two ago.
New York state on Saturday reported 783 more deaths, for a total of more than 8,600.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the daily number of deaths is stabilizing, “but stabilizing at a horrific rate.”
“What do we do now? We stay the course,” Cuomo said.
With authorities warning that the crisis in New York is far from over, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city’s 1.1 million-student school system would remain closed for the rest of the academic year.
However, Cuomo said the decision is up to him and no such determination has been made.
In the US midwest, pockets of contagion have alarmed state and city leaders and led to stricter enforcement. Nearly 300 inmates at the Cook County Jail in Illinois have tested positive for the virus and two have died.
In Wisconsin, health officials expect to see an increase in cases after thousands of people went to the polls on Tuesday last week for the state’s presidential primary.
Meanwhile, Francis broke with centuries of tradition to livestream Easter Sunday Mass to those suffering in the solitude of a coronavirus lockdown that forced the world’s Catholics to improvise on their holiest day.
“For many, this is an Easter of solitude lived amid the sorrow and hardship that the pandemic is causing, from physical suffering to economic difficulties,” the pope said.
Francis urged the world’s leaders to put aside their political fights and call back their armies during a global health emergency of a magnitude not seen in 100 years.
“This is not a time for division,” Francis said.
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