In 24-Hour Span, America’s Death Toll Climbs By 4,591 As Coronavirus Edges Closer To Becoming Leading Cause Of Death

The prior record was 2,569, reported the day before. COVID-19 is on pace to become the largest single killer of Americans, given the normal number of deaths in an April week. Meanwhile, most experts agree it's hard to get an accurate count due to spotty testing and the actual number of both cases and deaths are likely higher.

The Wall Street Journal: Reported U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Reach Record 4,591 In 24 Hours

The number of reported deaths in the U.S. from the new coronavirus spiked to nearly double the prior record Thursday, as governors extended their lockdown orders, and the Trump administration released new federal guidelines to reopen the economy. In the 24 hours ending at 8 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, 4,591 people were reported to have died from Covid-19, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. The prior record was 2,569 on Wednesday. The number of new reported U.S. cases, meanwhile, was roughly equal with that on Wednesday at 31,451. (Calfas, Purnell and Dalton, 4/17)

ABC News: Coronavirus Updates: Nearly 5,000 New US Deaths Reported, COVID-19 Death Toll Now Above 33,000

More than 2.1 million people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus worldwide as the spread of the virus continues. The global coronavirus death toll stands at more than 145,000 people, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to a number of deaths in which a person is not tested for the virus. (Mansell, 4/17)

The Associated Press: Amid Talk Of Restarting Economy, Virus Keeps Killing In NYC

Hopeful talk about getting people out of their homes and back to work in some parts of the country seems a far cry from the harsh reality in New York and its suburbs: Thousands of people infected with the coronavirus are still streaming into hospitals every day. Hundreds are still dying. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted the lack of major improvement Thursday as he announced another 606 deaths in the state and said current social isolation rules will stay in place through at least May 15. The number dying was down from a day earlier, but remains alarmingly high. (Caruso, Hill and Sisak, 4/16)

CNN: US Coronavirus: New York And Other Hot Spots Getting Longer Peaks

New York and other hot spots are experiencing prolonged peaks of the coronavirus pandemic while southern states may not get hit as hard as earlier projected, experts say. Researchers from the prominent projection model cited by the White House plan to release new data on the pandemic Friday. (Karimi, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: 55 New Coronavirus Deaths In L.A. County A Record High

Coronavirus-linked fatalities hit another one-day high in Los Angeles County on Thursday as health officials confirmed 55 additional deaths. The latest update — marking the third straight day the county has seen a record number of deaths — brought the county’s total to 455 and demonstrates “the devastating power of COVID-19,” Public Health Department Director Barbara Ferrer said. The county’s mortality rate now stands at 4.2%, she added. (Lin, Greene and Money, 4/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Study Suggests California Has 10 Times More Coronavirus Cases Than Reported. Local Experts Disagree

A new study estimates that as many as 270,000 Californians are infected with the coronavirus, more than 10 times the number reported, and that New York is much worse off than even the most pessimistic disease trackers believe. The 61-page report appears to bolster the long-held belief by medical specialists that there is a huge population of untested virus carriers who could be infecting others, but Bay Area epidemiologists are skeptical that the infection rate could be as high as the authors predict. (Fimrite, 4/15)

Houston Chronicle: Health Officials Say Houston-Area's COVID-19 Curve Is Beginning To Flatten

After weeks of grim, ever-worsening statistics, Houston medical and public health leaders say the area has begun to flatten the COVID-19 curve, the rate at which the disease is spreading through the community. The start of such flattening, seen in testing and hospitalization data, represents the turning of a significant corner for an area that has been shut down for more than a month to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. The virus has infected more than 2 million people globally and killed more than 33,000 in the U.S. (Ackerman, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: Henry Ford Doctors See 'Plateau' In Patient Surge As COVID-19 Deaths In Michigan Top 2,000

Michigan's coronavirus death toll topped 2,000 on Thursday, a milestone that also brought more signs that infections are flattening as Henry Ford Health System officials reported a "plateau" in COVID-19 patients. State health officials reported 172 new deaths in a 24-hour period that ended at 10 a.m. Thursday, the second most COVID-19 deaths reported in one day since the pandemic hit Michigan five weeks ago. (Livengood, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Mass-Grave Burials On Hart Island In New York Rise Fivefold

Desolate Hart Island, a mile-long stretch of dirt off the Bronx, has taken New York City's unclaimed dead for 151 years: Civil War soldiers, stillborn babies, the homeless and AIDS patients, who were confined to the island's southernmost tip for fear that their little-understood virus might spread from their corpses. During the coronavirus pandemic, the mass-grave burials of indigent New Yorkers whose families could not be found or who could not afford a private funeral have quintupled, officials said, growing from an average of 25 per week to 120. (Yuan, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Which Deaths Count Toward The Covid-19 Death Toll? It Depends On The State.

In Alabama, officials have ruled that one of every 10 people who died with covid-19 did not die of covid-19. Among those excluded from the numbers reported to the federal government were a bedbound patient with aspiration pneumonia in one lung and a person with a buildup of fluid and partial collapse of one lung. Colorado, by contrast, has included some deaths where the disease caused by the novel coronavirus was deemed probable — based on symptoms and possible exposure — but not confirmed through a test. (Brown, Reinhard and Thebault, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Counting Coronavirus Cases: Why It’s Harder Than It Might Seem

Some of the most frequently cited figures these days are the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths. The results have influenced decisions to lock down economies and will play a role in plans to ease the restrictions. But counting these things is hard. First, you have to decide what to include. Second, you have to apply the criteria uniformly. And third, you must assemble the results without error. (McGinty, 4/17)

ABC News: 'Massive Blindspot': Missing Data In COVID Pandemic Leaves US Vulnerable

President Donald Trump is eyeing May 1 to reopen the country. Governors on both coasts -- some of the hardest-hit areas thus far -- are also discussing plans to get the economy rolling again. But the big question is when and how to do so safely. While discussions about flattening the curve, passing the peak and plateauing have generated some optimism, public health professionals fear that a key factor in understanding the novel coronavirus pandemic has been forgotten: the missing data. (Torres, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Is Becoming America's Leading Cause Of Death

In just weeks, covid-19 deaths have snowballed from a few isolated cases to thousands across the country each day. The U.S. surgeon general had warned that last week would be like Pearl Harbor as he attempted to create context for the threat — but it turned out that more than five times as many Americans died from covid-19 last week than were killed in the World War II raid. (Keating and Esteban, 4/16)

The New York Times: Why Epidemiologists Still Don’t Know The Death Rate For Covid-19

Coroners in some parts of the country are overwhelmed. Funeral homes in coronavirus hot spots can barely keep up. Newspaper obituary pages in hard-hit areas go on and on. Covid-19 is on track to kill far more people in the United States this year than the seasonal flu. But determining just how deadly the new coronavirus will be is a key question facing epidemiologists, who expect resurgent waves of infection that could last into 2022. As the virus spread across the world in late February and March, the projection circulated by infectious disease experts of how many infected people would die seemed plenty dire: around 1 percent, or 10 times the rate of a typical flu. (Harmon, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: ‘It’s Not Over Until It’s Over’: 5 Things To Know About Hitting The COVID-19 Peak

As New York, California and other states begin to see their numbers of new COVID-19 cases level off or even slip, it might appear as if we’re nearing the end of the pandemic. President Donald Trump and some governors have pointed to the slowdown as an indication that the day has come for reopening the country. “Our experts say the curve has flattened and the peak in new cases is behind us,” Trump said Thursday in announcing the administration’s guidance to states about how to begin easing social distancing measures and stay-at home orders. (Galewitz, 4/17)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription