With 1,939 fatalities, US records highest death toll in single day

New York governor says state appears to be nearing the peak of its outbreak but urges citizens to continue staying indoors

The US on Tuesday recorded its highest daily death toll from the coronavirus with 1,939 fatalities, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, as the country approaches tolls in worst-hit Italy and Spain.

Virus deaths hit a new daily high in Britain, where 55-year-old leader Boris Johnson was said to be “stable” and in “good spirits” despite receiving oxygen treatment in intensive care.

And Paris toughened its lockdown measures, banning daytime jogging to keep people from bending the rules as France breached 10,000 deaths.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said with 731 deaths the state appeared to be nearing the peak of its outbreak but urged citizens to continue staying indoors.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo briefs the media inside a nearly completed makeshift hospital at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, March 27, 2020. (Darren McGee/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo via AP)

Cuomo said the death tally is a “lagging indicator” that reflects the loss of critically ill people hospitalized earlier.

“That’s 731 people who we lost. Behind every one of those numbers is an individual. There’s a family, there’s a mother, there’s a father, there’s a sister, there’s a brother. So a lot of pain again today for many New Yorkers,” Cuomo said at a briefing at the state Capitol.

US President Donald Trump, under fire for his own response to the virus, lashed out at the World Health Organizaiton and said there would be a “hold on money” provided to the UN body, which he accused of being “very China-centric.”

Exhausted medical staff around the world are battling with a stream of patients as makeshift hospitals spring up on ships, at hotels and even in a New York cathedral.

A member of the health staff team wearing a protective suit to protect against coronavirus, transfers a patient into an ambulance at the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganes, outskirts of Madrid, Spain, April 7, 2020 (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

The global economy is also on life support as governments pour in unprecedented sums to stem the worst crisis many countries have seen in a century.

While Japan agreed on a stimulus package worth around $1 trillion, a divided eurozone failed to agree on a bailout plan for hard-hit members after 16 hours of talks.

France’s economy shrank around six percent in the first quarter of this year, official data showed Wednesday — its worst performance since 1945.

Individuals have also stepped in, with Twitter co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey committing $1 billion of his personal fortune to the coronavirus fight.

And the stock market continued its rollercoaster ride, with the Dow Jones index soaring around 1,000 points on Tuesday before ending slightly lower.

The UN’s International Labour Organization said 81 percent of the world’s 3.3 billion-strong workforce is now affected by “the worst global crisis since the Second World War.”