Coronavirus: United States, Italy, Spain worst-hit countries as infection spreads

The United States is now the country hardest hit by Covid-19 as it deals with 118,126 active cases. On Saturday alone, the US registered almost 20,000 new cases.

The number of deaths in the US has also been increasing — 2,221 in total — with 525 known deaths registered on Saturday.

The hardest-hit state is New York with 52,000 cases, but the infection has spread throughout the country. In light of this development, President Donald Trump said that he’s weighing potential quarantine in New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut.

Such a measure would result in the isolation of at least 10 million people.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, however, suggested that such a directive hadn’t been discussed with the President and seemed averse to the idea.

“I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable. And from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing,” he told journalists.

Since then, Trump retracted on his call for lockdown and said quarantine measures would not be implemented.

Italy continues to register around 5,000 new cases of Covid-19 per day and has the lowest recovery rate (55%) in the world. While 12,384 have recovered, 10,023 have died as a result of the virus.

The Protezione Civile has been struggling with data to accurately report the number of cases and deaths.

Italy’s infection peak was on 21 March when 6,557 new infections were registered on that day.

As the country struggles to contain the infection, 46 doctors have died to date, and 6,414 health workers have tested positive.

Spain’s account of dealing with the virus followed Italy's — doctors and healthcare workers posting videos and comments on social media described harrowing daily routines in hospitals and clinics.

They said that the elderly had to be denied ventilators and other forms of treatment as younger patients were preferred, with resources unable to cater to the quick rise of infections.

Malta has a total of 149 cases after 22 days since the first three imported cases of Covid-19 were registered in the country. None has died and only one Maltese national is in critical condition. Two have successfully recovered.