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Covid-19 US toll grows, as do media accounts of Donald Trump’s missteps
The New York Times added to the growing litany of these accounts Saturday reporting that President Donald Trump and his administered squandered precious time over January, February and up until mid-March when mitigation efforts went into full force.
As the United States went from one coronavirus death on February 29 to more than 20,600 Sunday, media accounts are growing of the Trump administration’s response beset by unheeded warnings, delays and the president’s own reluctance to acknowledge the seriousness of the crisis.
The New York Times added to the growing litany of these accounts Saturday reporting that President Donald Trump and his administered squandered precious time over January, February and up until mid-March when mitigation efforts went into full force. He had focussed on other things, it said, in a long report, despite the fact that “an array of figures inside his government — from top White House advisers to experts deep in the cabinet departments and intelligence agencies — identified the threat, sounded alarms and made clear the need for aggressive action.”.
Associated Press reported Sunday a similar state of paralysis in the administration as it failed to stockpile medical supplies, impose travel restrictions in time and as the president seemed consumed by the impeachment trial and the White House was low to act, riven by infighting and turnover of personnel.
The Washington Post nailed the dysfunction in the administration way back on April 4, and reported that because of the missed warnings, in echoes of the failures leading up to the 9/11 attacks, the United States “ will likely go down as the country that was supposedly best prepared to fight a pandemic but ended up catastrophically overmatched by the novel coronavirus, sustaining heavier casualties than any other nation”.
The United States on Monday had the highest number of fatalities at 20,646, with 1,920 reported in the last 24 hours; and the most confirmed cases with 530,000. It now accounts for a fifth of the global toll of 110, 052 and nearly a third of all the confirmed cases, 1.7 million.
New York state remained the worst hit with 1818,825 confirmed cases and 8,650 death, up by 758. The toll in New York City, the epicenter of the American outbreak, went up to 6,367. Federal and state officials have, however, pointed to a drop in hospitalization and “flattening” of other metrics to express optimism the situation may be improving.
New York city mayor Bill de Blasio announced the schools and educational institutions will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year and will reopen in September. But Governor Andrew Cuomo has other ideas and told reporters there was a need for a state-wide decision on the issue.
New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Louisiana were among the other states with high incidence of infections of fatalities.
As a reflection of the magnitude of the crisis confronting the country, Wyoming on Saturday became the last state to go under disaster declaration, a federal measure that paves the way for enhanced federal help. All 50 states are under these disaster provisions now, for the first time in US history.
Essential medical supplies such as masks, gowns and ventilators remain an issue, despite ramped up production at home and purchases abroad. The defense department is jumping in with $133 million to manufacture 40 million N-95 masks over the next three months.
