Coronavirus death toll tops 5,000 in US as officials warn it’s going to get worse
More than 5,000 people in the United States have died in the coronavirus pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 215,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the United States.
The U.S. has more confirmed cases than any other country in the world. Globally, more than 935,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19, Johns Hopkins reports.
President Donald Trump this week extended federal safety guidelines asking people not to gather in groups and isolate as much as possible through at least April 30.
Many states have told restaurants, bars and other businesses to close, and some have ordered people to shelter in place in hopes of putting the brakes on the spread of the virus.
The White House coronavirus task force released public health models that show between 100,000 and 240,000 people could die from the pandemic in the United States.
“This is going to be a very, very painful two weeks,” the president said during a news briefing Tuesday.
Public health officials from all levels of government have been urging people to isolate as they try to “flatten the curve” of the virus. They hope to keep hospitals from becoming overwhelmed by a flood of new patients experiencing breathing difficulties from the disease.
“In the next several days to a week or so, we’re going to continue to see things go up,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “We cannot be discouraged by that because the mitigation is actually working and will work.”
Advisers on the White House task force said one model predicts almost 94,000 people in the United States could die from the virus by early August.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine model forecasts a peak in deaths in the middle of April with more than 2,200 Americans dying per day.
The president first announced the social distancing guidelines March 16, asking people to isolate for two weeks. He had said he hoped the country could reopen by Easter on April 12, but has since extended those guidelines through the end of the month.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 10:09 PM with the headline "Coronavirus death toll tops 5,000 in US as officials warn it’s going to get worse."
