More on Covid-19

WASHINGTON: California, whose $3.1 trillion economy is bigger than India’s and ranks fifth in the world when considered as a country, has ordered a lockdown of its 40 million residents after the state governor Gavin Newsom wrote to President Trump that 56% of its residents, perhaps up to 25 million people, would be infected with coronavirus in 8 weeks without mitigation efforts.In the most dramatic measure taken to combat the corona crisis in the United States, where confirmed cases doubled in just two days in part because of increased testing, Newsom ordered a shutdown of all non-essential business in the state while requesting $ 1 billion federal aid, including a hospital ship to be deployed off Los Angeles.The dire projection in what is called the Golden State, which aides to the governor clarified was a worst-case scenario if no action is taken right now, came even as the federal government deferred its annual tax filing deadline from April 15 to July 15. Coming on top of a $1 trillion economic bailout that will include cash payments for individuals and families, it is small relief to a besieged populace that has seen the economy crater and millions of jobs vanish in the face of the Covid-19 assault.California accounts for nearly 15 per cent of the US economy and includes storied enclaves such as Silicon Valley and Hollywood. It is also home to nearly a million people of Indian-origin.There is now pressure on other states — including New York, where Covid-19 infection doubled from 2870 to 5711 in 24 hours, partly on account of increased testing – to implement similar quarantine measures. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said the city has become the epicenter of the pandemic in US and begged President Trump to use the military to rush supplies while warning that he will turn hotels into hospitals to meet the growing demand for care.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is rejecting his pleas to shut down the city a la California. In a country where making of laws, rules and regulations are vastly decentralized, many states, cities, and counties are hesitant to or defiant in following federal directives or each other’s example, fearing such moves with simply devastate local economies without alleviation from the center.In another far-reaching directive, the State Department on Thursday advised all Americans not to travel overseas and asked all Americans abroad to return home immediately, warning that the government would not be able to bail them out if they did not come back before travel openings ceased completely.If commercial travel is still available in a given country, Americans were told to make arrangements to return to the US. immediately, "unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period." The level 4 alert is the highest ever issued so far and is usually reserved for war zones or hot spots like Syria, North Korea or Somalia.As with Indians and people of many nationalities, thousands of Americans are stranded across the world as airlines have whittled down flights and countries are shutting down gates. Travel is becoming difficult even within the United States with airports resembling ghostly malls. American Airlines, the nation’s largest carrier, said it is scrapping 55,000 flights in April and mothballing some 450 of its planes in the desert.Overall, more than 245,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed across the globe, with the World Health Organization noting that it took more than three months to reach 100,000 cases worldwide —but only 12 days to log the next 100,000. Much of the global lockdown is premised on this faster exponential growth in cases.