US coronavirus death toll tops 3,000 with more now dead than in 9/11 as health experts predict the worse is yet to come

• Monday was the deadliest day yet in the country’s coronavirus crisis, with 541 people dying and the total death toll surpassing 3,000 
• The COVID-19 outbreak is now officially more deadly than the 9/11 terrorist attacks which killed 2,977
• Modelling predicts that 82,141 would be dead by Aug. 4
• The reported cases climbed to more than 164,000 Monday, with a single-day increase of more than 20,000 
• Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor? 
• Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?

The US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic climbed past 3,000 on Monday, making the outbreak more deadly than the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed 2,977, but the number of daily fatalities are expected to soar over the next two weeks. 

Total deaths across the United States were at least 541 on Monday alone, and modelling by the University of Washington School of Medicine predicted that deaths will number more than 2,000 a day from April 10 through April 21. By August 4, the number of people dead from the outbreak in the United State could be 82,141, according to the model. 

Reported cases climbed to more than 163,000 on Monday as the number of new infections jumped at least 20,000 in one day. 

The United States has the most confirmed cases in the world, a number that is likely to soar when tests for the virus become more widespread. 

President Donald Trump told a White House briefing that more than 1 million Americans had been tested for coronavirus – less than 3 percent of the population. While the United States has ramped up testing after a series of setbacks, it still lags countries like Italy and South Korea on a per capita basis.

U.S. health officials are urging Americans to follow stay-at-home orders until the end of April to contain the spread of the virus, which originated in China and has infected about three-quarters of a million people around the world. 

More than 3,000 Americans had died from coronavirus as of Monday night. Pictured, medical staff load bodies to a refrigerated truck outside of Brooklyn Hospital Center, New York on Monday afternoon

Monday was the deadliest day yet in the country’s coronavirus crisis, with 541 people dying and the total dead surpassing 3,000

Across the US, the number of new infections leaped by more than 20,000 on Monday alone as the US led the world with confirmed cases

Above a graph shows how the number of confirmed cases has escalated since January when the first one was noted in the US

‘If we do things together well – almost perfectly – we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities,’ Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus task force, told NBC’s Today show.

But deaths per day will drop to below 100 after June 9, according to the predictive analysis. Some people could continue to die of the virus as late as July, although deaths should be below epidemic levels of 10 per day by the first week of July.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a White House briefing that he expected a coronavirus outbreak in the fall, as well, but he said the nation would be better prepared to respond. 

The worst is still to come however; The analysis also highlights the strain that will be placed on hospitals with the number of hospitalized patients expected to peak nationally by the second week of April – although the peak may come later in some states.

The COVID-19 outbreak is now officially more deadly than the 9/11 terrorist attacks which killed 2,977

The analysis predicts that the number of US deaths could vary widely, ranging from as low as around 38,000 to as high as around 162,000, due in part to disparate rates of the spread of the virus in different regions.

If social distancing is adhered to, the number of deaths from coronavirus is predicted to reach about 82,000 over the next four months, the analysis predicts.  

On Monday, 225 million people in the US were on lockdown as the likes of Virginia, Maryland and South Florida issued stay-at-home orders.

Deaths in New York are expected to peak within seven to 10 days, according to Farzad Mostashari, the founder of healthcare startup Aledade. 

Visits to hospital emergency rooms in New York City showed a decline in numbers over the weekend, Mostashari says, which puts hospitalizations on a downward trend and shows signs the state’s stay-at-home order is working.

State officials expect the number of deaths in New York to continue to rise as the outbreak reaches its projected peak in the coming weeks.

‘Whatever the numbers is, it’s going to be staggering,’ New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. ‘We’ve lost over 1,000 New Yorkers… To me, we’re beyond staggering already.’

He said the rise in the number of new coronavirus infections appeared to be slowing and the hospital discharge rate was increasing.

‘People come into the hospital, they stay for a period of time, a number of days, and then they move on,’ Cuomo said.    

Cuomo, one of the most prominent public figures of the coronavirus crisis, told a news conference the state might have to step in to close playgrounds in the country’s most populous city in order to enforce social distancing and slow the spread of the virus. 

On the deadliest day yet in the country’s mounting crisis, New York cheered the arrival of a gleaming 1,000-bed U.S. Navy hospital ship as a sign of hope in the city’s desperate fight. 

Workers build a makeshift morgue outside of Bellevue hospital to deal with an anticipated surge in coronavirus deaths in the coming days. The last time that New York City deployed a fleet of makeshift morgues outside hospitals was in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks

The death toll from the coronavirus is predicted to be 2,271 on April 15 alone, the model analysis by the University of Washington School of Medicine shows

The analysis predicts that the number of US deaths could vary widely, ranging from as low as around 38,000 to as high as around 162,000, due in part to disparate rates of the spread of the virus in different region

People in New York and New Jersey lined both sides of the Hudson River to cheer the U.S Navy ship Comfort, a converted oil tanker painted white with giant red crosses, as it sailed past the Statue of Liberty accompanied by support ships and helicopters.

The Comfort will treat non-coronavirus patients, including those who require surgery and critical care, in an effort to free up other resources to fight the virus, the Navy said.

‘It’s a wartime atmosphere and we all have to pull together,’ said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was among the dignitaries to greet the ship’s arrival at the Midtown Manhattan pier.

Hospitals in the New York City area have been overrun with patients suffering from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. Officials have appealed for volunteer healthcare workers. Cuomo asked for those based in other states to come to New York.

‘We can’t take care of you if we can’t take care of ourselves,’ said Krystal Horchuck, a nurse with Virtua Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. ‘I think a lot of us have accepted the fact that we are probably going to get this. It’s just that we want to survive. We’re all being exposed to it at some point.’ 

To ease the pressure in New York, construction of a 68-bed field hospital began on Sunday in Manhattan’s Central Park. The white tents being set up evoked a wartime feel in an island of green typically used by New Yorkers to exercise, picnic and enjoy the first signs of spring.

The makeshift facility, provided by the Mount Sinai Health System and non-profit organization Samaritan’s Purse, is expected to begin accepting patients on Tuesday, de Blasio said.

Cuomo and de Blasio are among a growing chorus of officials who have voiced frustration at Trump’s handling of the crisis and a shortage of ventilators and personal protective equipment. On Monday, Trump said he believed medical staff were stealing masks.

Ford Motor Co said on Monday it will produce 50,000 ventilators over the next 100 days at a Michigan plant in cooperation with General Electric’s healthcare unit, and can then manufacture 30,000 a month.

Officials in states hard hit by the pandemic have pleaded with the Trump administration and manufacturers to speed up production of ventilators to cope with a surge in patients struggling to breathe. On Friday, Trump said he would invoke powers under the Defense Production Act to direct manufacturers to produce ventilators.  

In New York dead bodies were seen being loaded into trucks as hospitals ran out of space. The last time that New York City deployed a fleet of makeshift morgues outside hospitals was in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 

State officials expect the number of deaths in New York to continue to rise as the outbreak reaches its projected peak in the coming weeks. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said. ‘We’ve lost over 1,000 New Yorkers… To me, we’re beyond staggering already’

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said the city is rapidly moving people onto EMS teams and is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on body storage amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Bill de Blasio said Monday night the city is rapidly moving people onto EMS teams and is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on body storage. 

He added in an interview with NY1 that the city will lease out entire hotels and turn them into hospitals. ‘We’re going to be doing that to the tune of thousands of thousands of rooms,’ he said.

As the situation worsened, the mayor said it’s unlikely children will be back at school. With millions of Americans now jobless due to social distancing shutdowns, de Blasio suggested landlords let tenants use their security deposits to pay rent and said he would do the same for people renting his properties.

PUBLIC FIGURES WHO TESTED POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS

New York is one of several states that have opted to release people from jail in order to help stop the spread of COVID-19. He admitted that for ‘fundamental medical and humanitarian’ reasons, sex offender suspects in jail who are over 50, 60, or 70 years of age and with pre-existing conditions may have to be considered for release despite their previous decision not to.

Cuomo on Monday urged other states across the US to not think they are immune to the virus.

‘There is no American that is immune. What is happening to New York is not an anomaly. In many ways, it’s the canary in the coal mine,’ Cuomo said.

‘What you see us going through here, you will see happening all across this country. We believe that we’re dealing with this pandemic at a level intensity that no one has seen before.

Authorities in New Orleans were setting up a field hospital at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center – the same site where thousands of Hurricane Katrina refugees gathered in 2005 – to handle an expected overflow of patients.

Dr. Thomas Krajewski, an emergency room doctor at St. Barnard Parish hospital in New Orleans, said he had watched patients be admitted to the hospital and seem ready to get better only to get worse.

‘Many of them have passed away already in a way that … it’s not normal,’ he said. ‘It’s not something that any of us had prepared to do. And we’re kind of writing the book as we go.’

The governors of Maryland, Virginia and Arizona issued ‘stay-at-home’ orders as cases rose in those states, as did Washington, D.C.

At the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois, 12 prisoners were hospitalized and several required ventilators, while 77 more showing symptoms were isolated at the facility, officials said.

Renowned country and folk singer John Prine was among the latest celebrities – including several members of Congress – to come down with the virus. Prine was in stable condition on Monday after being hospitalized with symptoms of the illness, his wife said on Twitter. Prine, a 73-year-old cancer survivor, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

In California, another hard-hit state, Governor Gavin Newsom said the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations had nearly doubled over the past four days and the number of ICU patients had tripled. Officials there also appealed for medical volunteers.

California is expected to hit its coronavirus peak April 26.

Florida will be at its worst May 3, according to modelling. 

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