US toll crosses grim 9/11 mark, readies for worst

New York: As the number of deaths from coronavirus passed the grim milestone of the toll of 9/11, the US stared at questions about its preparedness and the stark prospects of more than 100,000 people dying in the pandemic.

The number of fatalities due to COVID-19 infections in the US spiked to 4,055 with at least 188,578 confirmed cases on Wednesday. The count of deaths exceeded the 2,977 toll of the terrorist attack on the US, the worst mass death in the US and a post-World War II benchmark for tragedies.

New York City, the epicentre of the pandemic where 1,096 have died, gave a preview of how the situation could unfold: Outside some city hospitals that had run out of space in the morgue to store the bodies, freezer trucks were parked with bodies being brought out on forklifts. The New York Post quoted New York Funeral Directors Association official Mike Lanottes as saying that some cemeteries are finding it difficult to handle burials and a backlog could be developing.

The supply of personal protection equipment (PPE) for health professionals and first responders, sophisticated ventilators for patients and tests to determine who is affected dominates the response to the pandemic amid questions if there are enough in stock.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence say there is adequate stock and more are on the way, but others question if the supply can meet the needs of the upcoming onslaught. Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticised Trump for not preparing for the crisis.

She said on a TV programme that PPEs, ventilators and test kits are immediately needed.

She accused Trump of not fully using his powers under the Defence Production Act to compel companies to manufacture them. "It will save lives," she said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state needed 30,000 ventilators in the coming weeks but was receiving only 4,000 from the federal government.

He accused the Trump administration of setting up a competition among states and itself in bidding for equipment, raising the prices, instead of having a centralised purchase system.

Because of the de-industrialisation of the US under previous administration, the US is ironically dependent for a lot of the equipment and supplies on China, which is the source of the pandemic and is getting huge profits from it.

The US is now making auto manufacturers like Ford and General Motors to make the ventilators that cost about $25,000 each.

Trump said that some governors were exaggerating their needs.

Federal agencies and the military have been deploying hospital ships and rapidly setting up field hospitals around the country.

Anthony Fauci and Deborah Brix, the medical experts on the Coronavirus Task Force (CTF), said that the worst phase was two weeks ahead and displayed the models that showed the possibility of 100,000 to 240,000 people dying before the pandemic's end months away.

And that number was if the US followed the best procedures for controlling its spread.

If it did not follow the guidelines for social distancing, the projections show that the death toll could be as high as one million, according to the projections they presented.