Death toll in New York soars to nearly 3,000 as state pleads for aid.

New York, the increasingly battered epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, on Friday reported its highest number of deaths from the virus in a single day, prompting state officials to beg the rest of the country for assistance and to enact an emergency order designed to stave off medical catastrophe.

In the 24 hours through 12 a.m. on Friday, 562 people — or one almost every two-and-a-half minutes — died from the virus in New York State, bringing the total death toll to nearly 3,000, double what it was only three days before. In the same period, 1,427 newly sickened patients poured into hospitals — another one-day high — although the rate of increase in hospitalizations seemed to stabilize, suggesting that the extreme social-distancing measures put in place last month may have started working.

Despite the glimmer of hope, the new statistics were a stark reminder of the gale-force strength of the crisis threatening New York, where more than 102,000 people — nearly as many as in Italy and Spain, the hardest-hit European countries with about 120,000 cases each — have now tested positive for the virus. The situation was particularly dire in New York City, where some hospitals have reported running out of body bags and others have begun to plan for the unthinkable prospect of rationing care.

“It is hard to put fully into words what we are all grappling with as we navigate our way through this pandemic,” Vicki L. LoPachin, the chief medical officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, wrote in an email to the staff on Friday. “We are healing so many and comforting those we can’t save — one precious life at a time.”

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Friday that the government would “move supplies creatively around the country to meet the needs of both the front-line health care providers but also every American who needs our support right now.”

The Pentagon is considering letting two Navy hospital ships dispatched to New York and California take patients who test positive for the novel coronavirus, Defense Department officials said Friday. A decision could come in the next few days.

Reference: NY Times