United States, arguably the mightiest country in the world, is facing the worst crisis since world wars and the Spanish influenza pandemic. The Times Square, mighty business hub often referred to as ‘centre of the world’ by those with America centric view of the globe, is closed for good. Economic activity in New York state has come to a standstill in the country which accounts for almost a quarter of global GDP.
As per recent projections, the United States is the new epicentre of the COVID-19 after China and Italy, and the centre of US, New York City, is suffering most from the crisis. As per estimates, 80 per cent of the 19 million people of New York State are expected to be affected by the disease; right now the state accounts for more than half of the cases reported in the country and 5 per cent of the total cases in the world.
As of now, US has a total of 46,370 cases and 610 people have already died as John Hopkins University data, which puts the country third in the list of highest number of Coronavirus cases, but given the exponential increase in cases and deaths in the last few days, it is feared that the USA’s numbers will overtake the other two devastated countries very soon.
US has been unable to ‘flatten the curve’ as in the initial days, majority of American politicians including President Trump did not take the “Chinese virus” seriously. Mathematical models from Imperial College London suggests that 22 lakh Americans could die in the next few months if efforts were not made to flatten the curve.
Most of the states have started taking measures to fight the coronavirus disease and social distancing- the most effective so far in the fight against the virus, is being enforced in many states including New York and California.
The US economy is expected to witness a recession of the scale of 2008-09 or even greater than that. In the second quarter of this calendar year, the American economy is expected to contract by 15 per cent and unemployment, which has been lowest in the American history a few months ago, is expected to touch 20 per cent. The American executive is negotiating 2 trillion dollar relief package to support the economy with Congress, but, the package is still stuck in Republican-Democrat fight.
Businesses are already bracing for a long-long lockdown. The hotels in New York have closed the booking till June, and fresh booking are available from the month of July. “We are currently taking reservations for July 1 based on the curve this virus has taken in other countries,” said Richard Born, who operates some 5,000 hotel rooms in New York.
New York City, the heart of America, is the hardest hit by the ‘Chinese virus’. The city has witnessed a 38 per cent overnight jump in the number of reported cases. 13 per cent of the cases have already been hospitalized and the city has run out of beds, masks, and ventilators.
The governor of the state, Andrew Cuomo, has already issued an emergency order and said that no one knows how long this lockdown will go. “Nobody can tell you is it four months, six months, eight months, nine months. But it is several months,” Cuomo said. “We all have to now confront that that is a new reality. That is not going to change. You are not going to turn on the news tomorrow morning and they’re going to say, ‘Surprise, surprise this is all now resolved in two weeks.’”
Northeastern United States, the region which covers 13 colonies of the country, is most severely hit and has the highest density of the cases in the country. The Northeastern region in the richest in US and has very close links to European countries, and therefore, it imported the highest number of cases, and after a few days, community spread began.
Now, the United States government- federal, states, and local- will have to work on war footing to minimize the fatality and bring the situation under control. The ‘denial’ would no longer work, and from the daily press conferences of President Trump, it has become very evident that the White House has understood the scale of the problem.
