The US death toll from coronavirus briefly overtook Italy’s for the highest in the world on Saturday, according to a running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The US eclipsed Italy in reporting more than 18,850 dead at around noon, but a short time later Italy reported a total of nearly 19,500.
However deaths have been declining in recent days in Italy while rising rapidly in the US, as Chicago and other cities across the Mid West braced for a potential surge in victims.
About half the deaths in the US were in the New York metropolitan area, where hospital admissions were nevertheless slowing down and other indicators suggested social distancing was “flattening the curve” of infections.
But with authorities warning that the crisis in New York is far from over, the city announced its 1.1 million-pupil school system will remain closed for the rest of the academic year.
Meanwhile, European countries used roadblocks, drones, helicopters, mounted patrols and the threat of fines to keep people from travelling over the Easter weekend, as glorious weather posed an extra test of public discipline.
“Don’t do silly things,” said Domenico Arcuri, Italy’s special commissioner for the virus emergency. “Don’t go out, continue to behave responsibly as you have done until today, use your head and your sense of responsibility.”
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