U.S. Now Leads the Number of Coronavirus Cases in the World

• The numbers have eclipsed even those in China, where the virus came from.
• Health workers are exhausted and hospitals are resorting to desperate measures to keep up.
• Illinois and Michigan could be the next epicenters of the virus, according to health officials.

The United States has 143,055 cases of the coronavirus. As of March 30, this is the highest in the world, eclipsing even the numbers in China, where the disease started.

Day by the day the numbers piled up and sent hospitals in the country scrambling to keep up with the number of patients being rushed for checking and treatment. So far the epicenter is New York, where more than half of the country’s cases have been reported.

Hospital workers are exhausted and are resorting to desperate measures to fight the coronavirus.

Makeshift morgue tents and refrigerated trucks were set up outside New York Bellevue Hospital Center because there are too many dead bodies.

People line up outside Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens for checking and treatment. 13 people have already died from the virus within 24 hours

Caring for so many patients at critical levels is taking its toll on the health care workers. A registered nurse, who refuses to be named, described her experience at a Long Island hospital.

“I haven’t slept because my mind won’t shut off. I cried in the bathroom on my break, as I peeled off the PPE from my sweaty self, mask indentations on my face. I cried the entire ride home,” the nurse said in a social media post.

According to the nurse, patients were coming in continuously with “non stop coughing, sweaty, fevers” and with “fear in their eyes.”

Health officials predict that Illinois and Michigan could be the next epicenters of the virus. They are concerned that counties like Cook County, Illinois, and Wayne County, Michigan, are showing “more rapid increase” in cases, according to Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator.

She noted that “40% of the country has ‘extraordinary low rates’ of coronavirus.” Around 19 states have less than 200 cases, she added.

Another emerging hot spot is Louisiana, which has seen cases rise this week. New Orleans is experiencing critical shortages of protective equipment and ventilators.

“This is going to be the disaster that defines our generation,” said Collin Arnold, director of the city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

As cases continue to rise, more hospitals are expected to run out of beds within two weeks. Former Louisiana Secretary of Health Dr. Rebekah Gee said that if more beds don’t become available, then they don’t have the resources to save lives.

Health care workers have been punching holes in plastic office report covers to use as makeshift protective masks.

Gee said more ventilators are urgently needed and that the federal government “needs to step in and fix” it.