In the United States, the numbers climb and the sad records follow one another. At 2:35 GMT Thursday, April 2, a total of 215,417 people were infected with the coronavirus in the country and 5,116 of them died, according to Johns Hopkins University, whose assessments are authoritative. In 24 hours, 884 people succumbed to the Covid-19, which is a new daily record.

In Connecticut, the death of a six-week-old baby has been reported after the death of a nine-month-old baby in Chicago. An announcement that particularly struck the spirits, the children being so far relatively spared. "It's heartbreaking," said the governor of the northeastern state, Ned Lamont.

President Donald Trump has called on the country to "get in motion". The White House presented its projections: the Covid-19 should kill between 100,000 and 240,000 people in the United States, which has become, after Europe, the new epicenter of the pandemic.

Handmade masks for everyone?

The head of state said he was not ruling out banning certain domestic air routes to cities in the country most affected by the virus, which could include New York, New Orleans and Detroit.

In addition, after having advised against the generalized wearing of masks, the American government changes its tone and plans to recommend handcrafted masks to everyone, belatedly following the example of Asian and European countries. The reason ? Many people are contagious without knowing it. If they wore a mask, it would mechanically reduce transmissions.

Meanwhile, the confinement continues. On Wednesday, the State of Florida, which had so far refused to order a general containment, finally gave in. Some 85% of Americans now live confined. And, as a symbol, the American national park service announced on Wednesday the immediate closure of the Grand Canyon, Arizona's tourist hotspot visited by millions of tourists each year.

New York playgrounds closed

With more than 1,900 dead, New York State is on the front line. Governor Andrew Cuomo has asked New York police to enforce stricter social distancing rules. "Young people must hear this message, they still haven't understood, we always see too many situations with far too much density involving young people", he said after having decided to close all the playing fields in New York City.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city is signing hotel deals to get 65,000 patient beds by the end of the month. He said that he had already obtained some 10,000 beds in twenty hotels, whose use has dropped significantly.

And aid is pouring in from everywhere, even from Russia, which dispatched a plane loaded with humanitarian aid to the megalopolis on Wednesday.

Massive unemployment

The American army is not spared: the Covid-19 has spread within the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, immobilized in Guam in the Pacific, and its crew has started to be evacuated.

Two other ships, the cruise liner Zaandam and its assistant ship the Rotterdam, continued to sail with four dead on board, without being sure of being able to dock in Florida on Thursday. "Canada has been notified to repatriate their passengers from the ships that will dock in Fort Everglades, Florida," said Donald Trump on Wednesday, adding that the same message had been sent to the United Kingdom.

In addition to the terrible human toll, the pandemic plunged the economy of the United States into crisis. The number of new unemployed registered last week should once again be in the millions. Between 2.8 and 5 million new unemployment benefit claimants are estimated to be announced on Thursday. Last week, 3.3 million new unemployment benefit claimants had swelled the ranks. Never seen.

With AFP and Reuters

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