Washington: The US has surpassed the ‘sad milestone’ of over one lakh coronavirus-linked deaths. It is the highest in the world, President Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday. Four months back he had said the situation was ‘totally under control’ and assured it was ‘going to be fine’.
“We have just reached a very sad milestone with the coronavirus pandemic deaths reaching 100,000,” Trump tweeted. It was indeed a grim figure more so for Trump who is seeking reelection.
“To all of the families & friends of those who have passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love. God be with you!” the president wrote.
Trump’s statement appeared to be highly contradictory to what he said January 22. “We have it (pandemic) totally under control,” Trump had said on ‘CNBC’. “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine,” he had added.
Trump initially said ‘50 to 60,000’ people could die’ during the outbreak. However, earlier this month the president said he was hopeful the toll would be lower than 100,000. That grim benchmark has been hit though and there are still about 1,000 deaths a day on average in the US.
The wave of deaths, one-third of which has come from the world’s financial capital of New York and neighbouring New Jersey and Connecticut, has had a devastating impact on American economy. It has now gone into recession with an unprecedented over 35 million losing their jobs in the last three months.
However, a silver lining is the rate of both deaths and new cases have been registering a decline. It is a development that has encouraged almost all of the 50 States to announce plans to reopen their economies.
As the US reached the painful milestone of 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths Wednesday, that figure represents, approximately, the death toll from the 9/11 terror attacks multiplied by 33, NBC News noted.
“Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbours, colleagues, strangers in our own towns and cities and states — 100,000 people gone, leaving unfathomable grief and confusion and anger in their wake,” it said in a report.
The US has seen more fatalities than any other country, while its 1.69 million confirmed infections account for about 30 per cent of the worldwide total.
The first US infection was reported in Washington state, January 21. The current US death toll stands at 100,276, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The ‘New York Times’ said that the death toll exceeds the number of US military combat fatalities in every conflict since the Korean War. It matches the toll in the US of the 1968 flu pandemic, and it is approaching the 116,000 killed in another flu outbreak a decade before that, it said.
Several prominent Indian-American doctors and eminent community members have succumbed to the COVID-19 in the past two months.
Agencies