2:43
- ABC News
- March 19, 2020
Coronavirus updates: 140 dead in US
Coronavirus has spread to all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
2:43
Trump said the decision was made by \"mutual consent,\" and that \"trade will not be affected.\"
The worldwide number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus topped 200,000 while the global death toll surpassed 8,000 on Wednesday morning, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
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The majority of cases and fatalities were still reported in China, but that percentage is continuing to diminish as the outbreak worsens in other countries such as Italy, Iran and the United States.
A doctor on the frontlines of the fight against the novel coronavirus in the United States warned that hospitals are already running low on lifesaving resources, even as the outbreak has yet to reach a peak.
\"If this peaks early and it peaks hard, we don't have the resources for this and we'll run out of ventilators and space,\" Dr. Stephen Anderson, an emergency physician in Auburn, Washington, told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview Wednesday on \"Good Morning America.\"
\"There's no question, we need quicker and more tests, we certainly need more space to place people, we need ventilators,\" Anderson continued. \"I have ventilators this morning, but the hospital up the street from me is out of ventilators at the moment.\"
Anderson also noted that health care workers on the frontlines, like himself, are in dire need of personal protective gear.
\"I've got my mask for today right here and I'm guarding it with my life because it could be my life. We reportedly have two days' supply,\" he added. \"We really don't have a deep bullpen. If people get sick and they're out, that takes people off the frontlines to help with this. But by the same token, you don't want to be sick and be around the people that are coming to the emergency department who are already the sickest people in most need in America. So we are trying to test our health care workers as quickly and efficiently as we can and getting them back in the ballgame, if possible.\"
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Anderson said \"there's a lot of stress\" among medical professionals right now, and he described the mood as \"frightening.\"
\"In 35 years of practice, I can say that this is the most anxiety that I have ever seen around the idea of an infectious disease,\" he said. \"We are on the frontlines and it's scary, that's where the casualties always happen in any battle.\"
Anderson emphasized the importance of flattening the curve of the outbreak to keep the spread of the disease at a manageable level for health care workers.
\"We need to make sure that if this goes on into June, that it's a gradual rise and fall,\" he said. \"And the way that we need to do that right now is by socially isolating ourselves and hunkering down so that we don't spread the virus.\"
The novel coronavirus has now spread to all European nations as Montenegro confirmed its first cases late Tuesday night.
Until now, Montenegro was the only country in Europe without a single confirmed case of COVID-19. The government has taken measures to prevent the outbreak from reaching the country, including closing its borders for foreigners, shutting schools and banning public gatherings.
Montenegro's prime minister, Dusko Markovic, revealed the country's first two confirmed cases in a press conference late on Tuesday. The patients are both women -- one is in her late 40s and the other is in her early 70s.
One of the patients had recently returned from Spain, where nearly 12,000 people are infected with the virus, while the other had returned from the United States, where nearly 6,500 people are infected.
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The two patients are currently hospitalized in a special ward of a medical clinic in Podgorica, the capital. Both are in stable condition, according to Markovic.
\"It is clear that the first cases of infections were not unexpected and it is very likely that soon new cases will be discovered,\" Markovic said.
Calling on his European neighbors to show solidarity during the pandemic, Montenegro's prime minister said his country's ports will remain available to other nations in the region \"to keep the flow of goods and its borders open to trade and supply.\"
\"It is up to us, the leaders of the region, to set an example and make decisions as good neighbors to each other,\" Markovic said.
Thirty-nine states have decided to close schools as of Tuesday night, according to the news journal Education Week.
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Combined with direct closures in other states, at least 91,000 public and private schools across the country are closed, are scheduled to close or were closed and later reopened, affecting some 41.6 million students, Education Week reported.
There are a total of 98,277 public schools and 34,576 private schools in the United States, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported just one new confirmed case for the second day in a row.
China's National Health Commission recorded only one new case of confirmed infection in Hubei province on both Monday and Tuesday. Each was reported in the city of Wuhan, where the very first cases of the novel coronavirus emerged back in December.
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Overall, the Chinese mainland has reported 80,894 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,237 deaths, with a vast majority in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province. While China still compromises the bulk of the world's cases, that proportion is shrinking by the day as the epidemic appears to slow down in China and expand abroad, particularly in Europe.
With more than 31,500 confirmed cases, Italy has the second-highest national total behind China, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
The largest national hospital organization in the United States is urging Americans to adhere to the recommended health precautions amid the coronavirus outbreak so the health care system doesn't become overwhelmed with patients.
\"There are limited supplies of ventilators and hospital beds, which is why hospitals and public health officials all across the country are urging the public to follow the guidance of the CDC and other public health leaders on social distancing and other actions,\" Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association, told ABC News in a statement Tuesday night. \"The best way not to overtax the health care system is to keep more people healthy. That is the reason public events have been canceled, schools are closed, businesses are instituting telework policies where possible, and other changes have been made to the way we routinely lead our lives.\"
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In addition to the guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services \"has told nursing homes and other health care facilities that house our most vulnerable patients to severely limit visitors and group events,\" according to Foster.
\"This will reduce the surge of acutely ill patients that hospitals will see, and hopefully ensure we experience a manageable level of demand,\" she added. \"Hospitals and our dedicated doctors and nurses are doing their part to combat this virus. We hope everyone else will as well.\"
ABC News' Ali Dukakis, Ben Gittleson, Dragana Jovanovich, Phoebe Nathanson, Amanda Maile, Luis Martinez, Allison Pecorin and Jordyn Phelps contributed to this report.
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