Coronavirus: Nearly 2,000 dead in one day in the United States

Passengers in wetsuits at a station in Wuhan, China, April 8, 2020.

The coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in the United States, which has recorded nearly 2,000 additional deaths in the past 24 hours, worst daily toll in the world since the start of the pandemic, part of the Chinese city of Wuhan, where life slowly regains its rights.

With this record increase, the world's leading power is closer to the two most bereaved countries so far, Italy and Spain.

"I know very well that some very populous countries have many more cases than us, but that they do not declare them," defended Donald Trump on Tuesday, highlighting the large number of tests carried out in the United States.

The American president also threatened to suspend the financing of his country to the World Health Organization (WHO), too close in his eyes to Beijing. "Everything seems very favorable to China (...) They were wrong on many things," he said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent his third night in hospital in London. In stable condition, he was still in an intensive care unit, but conscious and without an artificial respirator.

The world is approaching 100,000 dead, with more than 80,000 identified Tuesday by AFP. But this count, from official sources, is below reality, since many deaths outside hospitals are neither tested nor counted, for example in the United States, where the rules vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. other.

In a world in search of good news, the reopening to transport in Wuhan, where 11 million inhabitants have been cut off from the world since the end of January, shows that the coronavirus can be tamed, even if the general containment has not been lifted and many controls remain in place.

Hundreds of people who were stranded in the city immediately rushed to the stations, AFP journalists said. "I've been locked up for 77 days!" Rejoiced a traveler, impatient to return to Changsha, some 350 kilometers away.

In the aftermath of a daily report which did not deplore any death for the first time since the beginning of January, China announced Wednesday morning two deaths due to Covid-19. Authorities fear a second wave of contamination linked to cases imported from abroad.

Black people most affected in the United States

In the United States, New York State, the US epicenter of the epidemic, recorded a new record of 731 deaths in 24 hours, for a total of 5,489 deaths.

Saint John the Theologian Cathedral in Manhattan is being transformed into a field hospital, with medical tents in its long nave and crypt.

"In previous centuries, cathedrals were still used this way, as during the plague," observed the dean of the cathedral, Clifton Daniel.

But New York is not the only American home. The hospitals in New Jersey, just to the south, as well as those in Michigan (Detroit) and Louisiana (New Orleans), are submerged.

A population seems particularly exposed, according to reports from a few jurisdictions, including Chicago and Washington: the Blacks.

First because they are more likely to have one of the diseases that cause life-threatening complications from Covid-19: diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease.

But also because historical socio-economic inequalities worsen the impact of the epidemic in the community: less access to care and screening, and jobs more exposed to contamination (supermarket, bus drivers ...).

Minority organizations have called on the federal authorities to publish national statistics broken down by what the Americans call "race" and ethnicity.

Waiting for the peak in Europe

From one day to the next, the balance sheets go up and down. Spain, after four days of decline, announced 743 dead, bringing the total to 13,798. The death toll also jumped in France, raising the total to 10,328 deaths.

Despite these rebounds, the number of new hospitalizations has stalled in several countries, including Spain and Italy (17,127 dead), which could mechanically reduce the number of deaths after a delay, since deaths often occur after several days of hospitalization, sometimes weeks.

"Although slowly, a certain drop in pressure is starting to be observed in hospitals and intensive care units," notes Dr Maria José Sierra, of the Spanish Health Alert Center.

At Vall d'Hebron hospital, the largest in Barcelona, ??"we had up to 24 new patients a day two days in a row," says department head Ricard Ferrer, who also spoke of a stabilized situation. But "we are still expecting one or two very critical weeks".

Massive unemployment

The markets are also banking on an upcoming decline: in Asia and Europe, the major stock exchanges ended largely in the green, while Wall Street ended in slight decline.

But a generalized recession appears inevitable in 2020, the International Labor Organization evoking the most serious crisis in the job market since the Second World War, with 1.25 billion workers potentially affected.

European Union (EU) finance ministers diverge on economic measures the Old Continent could take to respond to the crisis, Eurogroup president Mario Centeno arguing for "a large-scale coordinated recovery plan ".

The northern countries, Germany and the Netherlands in particular, are opposed to a joint aid plan financed by collective debt.

The EU will also guarantee more than 15 billion euros to help the most vulnerable countries in Africa and the rest of the world.

A global debate is already sketching on "deconfinement", arousing the fear of a relaxation in the more than four billion people, more than half of humanity, today forced or called by their authorities to stay at her's.

After Austria on Monday, Slovenia wants to lift restrictions next week, Norway from April 20, and Portugal discusses a return to normal in May.