Alarming situation in US: Hospitals may soon run out of beds for Covid-19 patients
US has now four epicentres of coronavirus instead of one -- Los Angeles, cities in Texas, cities in Florida and Arizona. This has led to the governors fearing that their hospitals could be overrun with patients.
New Delhi: United States has been the worst affected nation by Covid-19 pandemic, with a whopping 50,000 cases being reported in a day. It alone accounts for over 1.25 lakh deaths due to Coronavirus.
Even as the country prepares for re-opening the economy, it stares at hospital bed shortages in cities hit hard by Coronavirus. Mayors of these cities have warned of hospital bed shortages because of constant surge in numbers.
4 epicenters of Covid-19 in US
With US President Donald Trump promoting re-opening the economy, the country has now four epicentres of coronavirus instead of one — Los Angeles, cities in Texas, cities in Florida and Arizona. This has led to the governors fearing that their hospitals could be overrun with patients.
“We are right back where we were at the peak of the epidemic during the New York outbreak…The difference now is that we really had one epicentre of spread when New York was going through its hardship. Now, we really have four major epicentres of spread — Los Angeles, cities in Texas, cities in Florida and Arizona. Florida looks to be in the worst shape,” Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner was quoted by The Washington Post as saying in an interview. As per the latest data, Florida, New York and California have crossed the 200,000 mark of coronavirus cases.
Austin Mayor warns of hospital overrun
After Texas continued to break its own record of registering the highest number of coronavirus cases, Austin Mayor Steve Adler (D) was quoted as saying in an interview, “If we do not change this trajectory, then I am within two weeks of having our hospitals overrun.”
He further said that intensive care units in the city will start overflowing within 10 days.
Echoing similar sentiments, Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in Harris County, said, “As long as we’re doing as little as possible and hoping for the best, we are always going to be chasing this thing. We are always going to be behind and the virus will always outrun us…And so what we need right now is to do what works, which is a stay-home order.”
She was stripped of authority to issue stay-at-home orders after Governor Greg Abbott decided to move forward with the reopening plan.
‘Miami opened but people didn’t follow norms’
“It is clear that the (coronavirus) growth is exponential at this point…We have been breaking record after record after record… the last couple of weeks,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was quoted as saying in an interview.
“The city of Miami was the last city in the entire state of Florida to open. I was criticized for waiting so long. But there is no doubt that the fact that when we reopened, people started socialising as if… the virus didn’t exist.”
He further said that if the numbers do not begin to fall “more drastic measures” will be taken in the coming week.
As per the latest update by the Johns Hopkins University, a total of 2,938,625 people in the US have tested coronavirus positive and 130,306 deaths have been reported so far.