Covid-19 affects 1.3m+ people & responsible for 73,900+ deaths worldwide, with situation worsening in the US

Covid-19 now affects more than 1.3 million people and is responsible for around 73,900 fatalities worldwide, according to John Hopkins data.

THE US alone has more than 350,000 people infected with the disease – that’s more than the amount of cases in Spain, Italy and China put together. New York alone is responsible for around 4,758 deaths of the country’s 10,000-plus fatalities from the disease to date.

US President Donald Trump, along with the country’s health advisors, have warned Americans that “there will be a lot of death in the coming weeks,” over the weekend.

The virus has spread across all 50 states. New York remains the worst hit state, which now has more than 130,689 people infected with the disease, followed by New Jersey (37,505), Michigan (15,718), California (15,201), Louisiana (13,010), Massachusetts (12,500), Florida (2,350), Pennsylvania (11,643) and Illinois (11,260).

However, given the lack of widespread and reliable testing, the true scope of the outbreak is still largely unknown, according to the country’s health experts. The US is also ill-equipped to deal with a pandemic of this magnitude. Like most other countries, it also faces a lack of vital protective medical equipment, as well as hospital beds and resources.

To keep up with the pace of the pandemic, hospital administrators in the US have asked the federal government to help provide supplies and equipment for testing and to help provide protective equipment to facilities that need it. However, according to US reports, most hospitals claim that they haven’t received enough equipment, and when they did, it wasn’t what they asked for, or simply didn’t meet standards.