US braces for ‘hardest week’ in coronavirus fight
The United States entered one of the most critical weeks so far in the coronavirus crisis with government officials warning the death toll in states such as New York, Michigan and Louisiana was a sign of trouble to come in other states.
“This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly. This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localised,” US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said on US media network Fox News on Sunday.
The warning came as Europe began to see glimmers of hope with Italy’s death toll at its lowest in more than two weeks and its infection curve finally on a downward slope. In Spain, new deaths dropped for a third straight day.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, meanwhile, was admitted to a hospital for tests, in what his office said was a “precautionary step” and that he remains in charge of the government.
Globally, the death toll from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new virus, neared 70,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while the number of infections rose above 1.27 million.
AL JAZEERA
