Confirmed cases of coronavirus surpass 2M worldwide
Published:Monday | April 13, 2020 | 7:50 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — New York’s coronavirus death toll topped 10,000 even as the lack of fresh hot spots in the US or elsewhere in the world yielded a ray of optimism and fuelled discussions Monday about how some places might begin to reopen.
The brunt of the disease has been felt most heavily in New York, Italy, France, Spain and the United Kingdom, but grim projections of a virus that would spread with equal ferocity to other corners of America and the world have not yet materialised after more than a month of measures meant to blunt its impact.
Even so, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 2 million on Monday.
The death toll in populous states such as Florida and Pennsylvania was on par with some individual counties outside New York City.
Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city and a hub for immigrant communities and business travellers in the energy industry, has been largely spared compared to other parts of the US.
As Colorado deaths surpassed 300 on Monday, Governor Jared Polis compared that figure to New York’s thousands and called it “a tragic indication of our success in Colorado.”
Dr Sebastian Johnston, a professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College London, said it appeared that COVID-19 had peaked in much of Europe, including France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the U.K. He was worried the virus might now start to take off in countries across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia.
There’s also concern about Russia.
Hot spots may yet emerge as states lift stay-at-home orders, said Dr Christopher Murray, director of the University of Washington institute that created widely cited projections of virus-related deaths.
He pointed to states where the number of COVID-19 cases is still climbing: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida.
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