US coronavirus cases closing in on 15,000
The United States has reported 14,366 coronavirus cases, with 217 deaths and 125 recoveries so far. The worst affected states are Washington, New York and California.
Washington recorded a total of 1,377 cases with 74 deaths; New York has 5,711 cases with 42 deaths and California registered 1,048 total cases with 19 deaths, as of March 19. New York saw at least 344 new coronavirus cases reported in 24 hours.
Forty million Californians have been ordered to stay home to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The order was issued by California Governor Gavin Newsom on the night of March 19, due to an expected surge in the number of cases in the state over the next two months.
California request for US Navy ships
The California governor has called on President Donald Trump to send a US Navy hospital ship to the port of Los Angeles, California’s largest city, “immediately” to handle the expected increase of coronavirus cases. “I respectfully request you immediately deploy the USNS Mercy Hospital Ship to be stationed at the Port of Los Angeles through September 1, 2020, to help decompress our current health care delivery system in the Los Angeles region in response to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Newsom said in a letter to Trump.
Earlier, Trump revealed that two navy hospital ships, Mercy and Comfort will be deployed to each coast to provide assistance to the healthcare systems. According to California health officials, approximately 56% of the state’s population, which amounts to 25.5 million people, will be affected by the deadly coronavirus within the next eight weeks.
Increased support for New York
New York has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country after 7,500 tests revealed a far higher number of infected persons than a few days before.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for a lift of mortgage payments for 90 days, postponing any foreclosures and waiving fees for overdrafts, ATMs and credit cards. “People are under tremendous economic pressure, making a mortgage payment can be one of the number one stressors. Eliminating that stressor for 90 days, I think, will go a long way,” Cuomo said.
The waivers will reportedly not impact individuals’ credit reports and no negative reports will be recorded at the credit bureaus.