State now has 15,000 cases – around half of US total – with residents of New York City facing further lockdown from Sunday evening

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

Confirmed coronavirus cases have risen sharply in New York as both the state governor, Andrew Cuomo, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, called for urgent and better assistance from the federal government. The city has over 15,000 confirmed cases as of Sunday afternoon, up from 4,812 since Saturday.

The growth is due, in part, to the rapid expansion of testing but also due to the accelerated growth of the virus throughout the city.

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Coronavirus cases in the US have increased to more than 30,000. There have been 390 reported deaths in the US, with New York state the country’s hardest hit, with 114 deaths.

On Sunday evening the city faced shutdown after Cuomo, on Friday, ordered the shutdown of all non-essential businesses in the state. Except for essential services, all New Yorkers are now ordered to stay indoors from 8pm Sunday evening. By Sunday the state of New York accounted for half the country’s 30,000 cases nationwide.

Governor, Cuomo and Mayor, De Blasio, both heaped pressure on the White House on Sunday to urgently provide federal assistance on desperately needed medical supplies.

“If the president does not act, people will die who could have lived otherwise,” De Blasio told NBC. “If we don’t get more ventilators in the next 10 days people will die who don’t have to die,” he added, speaking to CNN.

In response Donald Trump, in his Sunday White House press briefing, promised additional help for New York state (alongside other hard-hit states California and Washington), including activating the national guard to help provide an additional 1,000 beds and extra face masks “within 48 hours”.

Earlier in the day Cuomo, speaking from the state capital, Albany, had taken aim at New York City dwellers who have been ignoring social distance in parks and on streets, and demanded that the city come up with a plan in 24 hours to reduce “density” in public spaces.

“I don’t know what I’m saying that people don’t get,” Cuomo said, calling some New Yorkers’ behavior “insensitive” and “arrogant”. He suggested that city officials could close some streets to traffic to give residents more outdoor space.

Cuomo also announced plans to set up temporary hospitals in three suburbs of New York City. he also said that one of the city’s biggest convention centers, Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan would be the site of a temporary hospital.

Cuomo had also called on the federal government to take over acquisition of medical supplies so states do not have to compete with each other. “Time matters, minutes count and this is literally a matter of life and death,” he said at Sunday press conference.

He called on Trump to enact the Defense Production Act, which would mandate firms to make essential medical supplies such as masks. Trump has so far resisted calls to do so, saying firms were acting themselves to make supplies.

Earlier Cuomo had said the government is “literally scouring the globe looking for medical supplies”.

“We’ve identified 2m N95 masks, which are the high protection masks,” he said. “One million masks won’t get us through the crisis, but it will make a significant, significant contribution to New York City’s mask issue.”

Trump hit back at his critics on the response, tweeting on Sunday that they should not be “blaming the federal government for their own shortcomings”.

He added: “We are there to back you up should you fail, and always will be!”

Mayor De Blasio, on Sunday, spelled out the challenge facing the city, “We are now in New York City the epicenter of this crisis in the United States of America. I am not happy to tell you that. You’re not happy to hear it.

“The worst is yet to come. April is going to be a lot worse than March. And I fear May could be worse than April.”

In Washington DC, meanwhile, negotiators from Congress and the White House are in weekend talks over a $1tn-plus economic rescue package, promoted by Trump, with hopes of a final vote on Monday.

Hopes of a deal to stimulate the embattled US economy looked bleak a by Sunday afternoon, however, as the AP reported both “congressional Republican and Democratic leaders said there was no deal yet after an hour-long meeting at the otherwise empty US Capitol”.

Senator Rand Paul, of Kentucky, revealed he had tested positive for coronavirus, the first member of the Senate to do so.

Also in New York City, at least 38 people have now tested positive at the notorious Rikers Island complex and nearby facilities. According to the board that oversees the city’s jail system, more than half of the new cases are incarcerated men.

Online, volunteers including small businesses, at-home seamstresses and even the fashion designer Christian Siriano answered Cuomo’s call to produce masks for health workers. In Michigan, staff at a Detroit hospital began creating homemade face masks for workers.

Healthcare workers from Oklahoma City to Minneapolis sought donations of protective equipment. Rural hospitals were particularly strained as people increasingly felt the pandemic closing in.

Drive-thru testing sites continue to sprout up for quicker and safer access for at-risk people. But much like the rest of the US pandemic response, the system has been marked by inconsistencies, delays and shortages.

Many people have reported waiting hours or days for a test after communicating symptoms to their doctors, leading to increased calls from health experts for Trump to tap the US national guard to aid in setting up mobile test sites across the country.

But more than a week after Trump promised states and retail stores such as Walmart and CVS would open drive-thru test centers, few sites are up and running, and they are not yet open to the general public.

The calls for increased mobile testing comes as more states enact tighter restrictions on residents to curb public gatherings and promote social distancing.

Officials in DC are hoping to strike a rescue deal to steady a nation thoroughly upended by the coronavirus pandemic. The economic package could provide nearly $2tn to stimulate the US economy through paychecks to citizens and small businesses and funds to hospitals.