Yesterday (March 28), new reported deaths in the U.S. from the Wuhan coronavirus exceeded 500 for the first day ever, according to Worldometer. On March 26, the daily death count was half of what it was yesterday.
The New York City pandemic is driving the increase. The pandemic there shows no sign of abating, and the high number of new reported cases from New York might well drive the daily national death count higher for weeks to come.
A key question for me is whether other big metropolitan areas will experience New York-like pandemics. New York, of course, is larger and more compact than other major cities, and, as I understand it, had more contact with Chinese nationals during January and February.
Thus, there’s reason to hope that no metropolitan area will be hammered by the virus to the extent New York has been. But there’s also reason to fear that we will see several mini New Yorks before long.
In Western Europe, meanwhile, the daily death figures (as reported by Worldometer) are inching towards 1,000 in Italy and Spain, and new reported cases in both countries are also rising. The number of daily reported deaths have held steady the past few days in France (at around 300) and Germany (at around 80). Great Britain reported 181 deaths on March 27 and 260 yesterday.
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