As cases of the coronavirus continued to spike across the US on Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence compared the nation’s trajectory to Italy.
There are now at least 206,207 cases of COVID-19 in the US, with more than 4,500 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins researchers.
Hot spots are flaring up in places like New Orleans, Detroit and Southern California — with New York the hardest hit of them all.
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Here’s what else we learned today:
New York Crisis:
- At least 16,000 New Yorkers could die before the pandemic is through, and most models now have the worst of the contagion hitting in late April, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today.
- A new city map of confirmed cases suggests the poorest New Yorkers are being hit hardest by the outbreak.
- And here’s an exclusive look inside a Brooklyn hospital’s trauma center, and how they’re coping with the virus while bracing for the worst yet to come.
Frontline heroes:
- This ER doctor and two-time cancer survivor died in his husband’s arms in their Harlem apartment — just days after he started to notice symptoms.
- Meet the man with the grimmest job in the Big Apple — Richard Phipps, who drives the forklift that carries victims to a refrigerated trailer outside Brooklyn Hospital Center.
Medical progress:
- A San Francisco doctor featured in the Netflix documentary “Pandemic” announced he has discovered a potential cure — which will now be tested by the US military.
- You may want to keep your kids off the playground. A troubling new study found that asymptomatic children are endangering pubic health by secretly spreading the disease.
- A new report by the CDC found that people with chronic conditions like diabetes and lung and heart disease are at greater risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19.
