New York now grappling with larger Covid-19 outbreak than any country bar the US itself

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David Child10 April 2020

Coronavirus has continued to race through New York, leaving the state now battling a larger outbreak of the infection than any other country outside the US.

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the state jumped to 159,937 on Thursday after another 10,000 people were confirmed to have contracted the virus in the preceding 24-hour period.

The surge means New York is currently facing a bigger caseload of coronavirus than Spain and Italy, which have recorded 153,000 and 143,000 infections respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of cases in the US as a whole has spiralled past 466,000, with the outbreak linked to nearly 17,000 deaths to date.

More than 7,000 of those deaths have occurred in New York state alone.

The dizzying speed with which the infection is spreading through the state has seen some of the dead laid to rest in mass burials.

Photos surfaced on Thursday showing workers in hazmat outfits laying coffins into huge pits at Hart Island, off the Bronx, New York City.

The site has for decades been used to bury those with no known next of kin, or those whose loved ones cannot afford their funeral costs.

Currently, about two dozen bodies a day, five days a week, are buried on the island, according to the Department of Correction, which oversees the burials.

Before burial, the dead are reportedly wrapped in body bags and placed inside pine coffins. The deceased’s name is scrawled in large letters on each.

Photos surfaced on Thursday showing workers in hazmat outfits laying coffins into huge pits at Hart Island, off the Bronx (Reuters)
REUTERS

Local prisoners have historically digged out graves at the site, but the rising workload caused by Covid-19 has seen city officials draft in contractors for the job.

Jason Kersten, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, said workers had "added two new trenches in case we need them".

Meanwhile, state officials pointed to early signs that social distancing measures rolled out in response to the pandemic were beginning to take effect.

On Thursday, New York recorded the lowest number of new hospitalisations since the crisis started, while the number of intensive care admissions was also down from a day before.

"We are saving lives by what we are doing today," Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Speaking at a daily briefing on Thursday, Mr Cuomo also compared the outbreak to "the same evil that we saw on 9/11", saying it was like a "silent explosion that ripples through society with the same randomness".

Separately on Thursday, the US government's top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, lowered official projections for the nationwide death toll.

Mr Fauci, a key member of the White House's coronavirus task force, told NBC News' Today show the final number of Americans who will die from Covid-19 in the outbreak "looks more like 60,000".

New York is now facing a bigger caseload of coronavirus than Spain and Italy
AFP via Getty Images

In late March, Mr Fauci had estimated the pandemic would kill "between 100,000 and 200,000" people in the US.

The White House has previously suggested that more than two million Americans could die from coronavirus if nothing was done to stop its spread.

In a bid to curtail the outbreak, stay-at-home orders have seen non-essential businesses shuttered in 42 states.

The moves have drastically slowed the US economy, prompting millions to file jobless claims as the financial toll tied to the coronavirus pandemic intensifies.

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