by Nomad
A grim milestone came and went at the end of this devastating week. On Friday, the coronavirus killed more New Yorkers than the terrorists who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The September 11 attacks killed about 2,700 people in New York state. In contrast, the coronavirus has so far killed 2,935 state residents of all age groups.
The number of confirmed US cases rose by 15,000 on Friday, fewer than the 16,000 reported on Thursday. By Friday night there were more than 6,000 hospitalised Covid-19 patients in New York with almost 1,600 in intensive care while the state had logged 519 deaths, the most in the US, and more than 44,000 infections.
As bad as those numbers are, worse is still to come. Many hospitals in New York state, the nation's top hot zone for the coronavirus, reached overcapacity on Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. Across the nation, hospitals administrators say their medical personnel are struggling to keep up with a flood of infected patients -- and the apex of the pandemic could still be days and possibly weeks away.
A week ago, the US became the first country to exceed 100,000 confirmed cases. Worldwide, the death toll surpassed 69,000 on Sunday, and more than 1.2 million people had been infected.
On Friday, an ABC News/Ipsos poll showed a majority of Americans now disapprove of President Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, with 52 percent disapproving and 47 approving.
The president's overall approval ratings suggest that whatever "bump" he may have gained in the crisis has already evaporated. Trump's approval rating stands at 44%, while disapproval rating comes in at 56% among registered voters.
Trump said "there will be a lot of death" as the U.S. faces its "toughest week" in the fight against the pandemic. With the president's admission that things will only get worse in the near term, nobody expects his support to rise again.
