This is the worst daily toll in the world: nearly 2,000 people have died from coronavirus in the United States in the past 24 hours. With this record increase, the world's leading power is a little 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.
Black people most affected 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 its dean, Clifton Daniel.
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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 aggravate 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 in Europe. 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".
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 the 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.
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In a world in search of good news, the reopening to transport of Wuhan, where 11 million inhabitants had 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. 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.