The COVID-19 Pandemic: Trump Warns of 'Painful' Two Weeks Ahead as US Death Toll Surpasses 4,000; UK Prime Minister Under Fire for Lack of Testing; and More

April 1st – a day usually reserved for light-hearted practical jokes and hoaxes among friends, family, and peers. But as we enter April, we all face the daunting reality that the enemy we face in COVID-19 is no joke – the pandemic continues on – edging closer to breaking 1 million confirmed cases. Worldometer currently reports over 886,000 world cases and over 44,000 deaths.

The foreign countries most affected by COVID-19 remain:

• Italy: 105,792 confirmed cases; 12,428 deaths (most of any country).
• Spain: 102,136 confirmed cases; 9,053 deaths.
• China: 81,554 confirmed cases; 3,312 deaths.
• Germany: 74,508 confirmed cases; 821 deaths.
• France: 52,128 confirmed cases; 3,523 deaths.
• Iran: 47,593 confirmed cases; 3,036 deaths.
• UK: 29,474 confirmed cases; 2,352 deaths.
• Switzerland: 17,137 confirmed cases; 461 deaths.

UK Prime Minister Johnson Under Fire for Low Tests

The COVID-19 death toll in the United Kingdom rose by a record 563 in the last 24 hours, and now Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government is under fire for failing to keep its promise to ramp up testing. The UK was initially performing 5,000 tests per day and promised to augment that number by 10,000 by the end of last week and up to 25,000 by mid-April. They have failed to reach that target, with only 8,630 tests administered on Monday. Richard Horton, editor of medical journal The Lancet, said Britain’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis was “the most serious science policy failure in a generation.”

"Public message: utter confusion." U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson under fire for low number of COVID-19 tests https://t.co/IlI7hCQR50

— TIME (@TIME) April 1, 2020

Spain Reports Deadliest Day Yet

COVID-19 killed 849 people in Spain on Tuesday, the deadliest day of the infection. Spain is now entering its third week of lockdown, and Spanish authorities are now accused of using violence to enforce draconian restrictions enacted to mitigate the virus’ spread. Fines for violating isolation protocols in Spain vary from 100 euros ($110) to 600,000 euros ($658,000) for a serious abuse of emergency restrictions, such as protesting near infrastructure including power stations or transit hubs.

National News:

Tuesday, April 1, 2020

Trump Warns of ‘Tough Two Weeks’ Ahead as Death Toll Rises

The US, which recently surpassed Italy and China as the world epicenter of confirmed cases with now over 200,000, has seen its death toll rise to over 4,000. President Trump warned the American public to prepare for a “painful” and “tough” two-week stretch ahead which could result in the loss of more than 100,000 and up to 240,000 lives – even if Americans adhere to social distancing. “I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks,” Trump said

New York still accounts for almost half of all US cases, at a staggering 83,712 confirmed cases, with over 1,900 deaths. New Jersey still has the second most infections with 18,696 cases and 267 deaths. California remains at three with 8,704 confirmed cases and 184 deaths, while Michigan rounds out the top four with 7,615 confirmed cases and 259 confirmed deaths.

The following states outside the top four have over 3,000 confirmed cases:

• Florida: 6,955 confirmed cases; 87 deaths.
• Massachusetts: 6,620 confirmed cases; 89 deaths.
• Washington: 5,482 confirmed cases; 225 deaths.
• Illinois: 5,994 confirmed cases; 99 deaths.
• Pennsylvania: 5,805 confirmed cases; 74 deaths.
• Washington: 5,482 confirmed cases; 225 deaths.
• Louisiana: 5,237 confirmed cases; 239 deaths.
• Georgia: 3,032 confirmed cases; 102 deaths.
• Texas: 3,715 confirmed cases; 56 deaths.
• Connecticut: 3,128 confirmed cases; 69 deaths.

Stocks Fall Following Trump’s Warning

Stocks fell by 4% on Wednesday following President Trump’s aforementioned warning of deadly days to come. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 909 points, or 4.1% in midday trading, while the S&P 500 fell by 4.4% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped by 3.9%. This comes one day after the Dow closed out their worst quarter since 1987.

Stocks Fall Sharply As Trump Warns Of A ‘Painful Two Weeks’ Ahead: It's the 2nd worst start to a quarter in the history of the S&P 500. https://t.co/NgHTKjwnWW pic.twitter.com/EQ93EN97zZ

— Virtual Data Rooms Reviews for M&A (@rooms_data) April 1, 2020

Asymptomatic Patients Are Fueling COVID’s Spread

New data from Iceland reveals that 50% of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 said they did not present with any symptoms. In the US, about 25% of COVID carriers have no symptoms. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield said in a NPR interview that: “Information that we have pretty much confirmed now is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic. That may be as many as 25%.”

Here’s a full wrap-up of COVID-19 happenings from the month of March.

https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/the-covid-19-pandemic-march-round-up-coronavirus-declared-a-pandemic-people-businesses-and-economies-devastated/

DocWire News will provide breaking updates on the COVID-19 pandemic as they become available.