KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 – The United States is expecting more than 100,000 deaths related to Covid-19 as the number of cases increase across the nation.
The US has reported more than 2,000 deaths in just two days. As at yesterday, the country recorded the highest number of coronavirus infections in the world at 121,000.
“I mean, looking at what we’re seeing now, you know, I would say between 100 and 200,000 (deaths). But I don’t want to be held to that,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, according to CNN, adding that the US is going to have “millions of cases.”
“Whenever the models come in, they give a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario. Generally, the reality is somewhere in the middle. I’ve never seen a model of the diseases that I’ve dealt with where the worst case actually came out. They always overshoot,” said Dr Fauci.
Experts, including Dr Fauci, are expecting the crisis to worsen before it improves. This is anticipated to cause severe supply shortages for hospitals around the country, especially in New York, which leads the highest number of cases in the US.
Hospitals around the country are expected to have no more beds for new patients in two weeks, while beds in New York are expected to only last a week.
“We have enough supplies to get to a week from today with the exception of ventilators. We’re going to need at least several hundred more ventilators very quickly. But we have otherwise the supplies to get to next Sunday,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
“We are going to need a re-enforcement by Sunday, April 5 in all categories, especially ventilators but in other areas as well. And personnel is becoming more and more the issue.”
US President Donald Trump is expected to extend the nationwide social distancing guidelines for another 30 days.
