COVID-19 Deaths Slow In New York

U-S Sun graphic

In a glimmer of good news amid the coronavirus pandemic, as deaths in the U.S. passed 10,000 on Monday, the steep rise in fatalities appeared to be leveling off in New York, indicating the outbreak might be at or near its peak in the nation's epicenter of the pandemic, something that's also happening in hard-hit Italy and Spain. The number of deaths in New York has held at just under 600 per day for the past four days, and both the number of new patients entering hospitals daily in the state and the number of patients needing ventilators has fallen.

But there was alarming word from Britain that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to intensive care yesterday after his condition deteriorated following his admission to the hospital the night before with persistent coronavirus symptoms. His office said the 55-year-old British leader was conscious and didn't immediately need to be put on a ventilator.

President Trump spoke by phone yesterday with former Vice President Joe Biden, who's likely to be his Democratic opponent in November, and said at his daily briefing that they had a, quote, "really wonderful, warm conversation" about the pandemic. Trump said, "He gave me his point of view, and I fully understood that, and we just had a very friendly conversation." Trump said he and Biden agreed not to share the details of their conversation, but confirmed a statement from Biden's campaign that he'd offered suggestions to the president on how to address the crisis. However, Trump added, "It doesn’t mean that I agree with those suggestions." Biden has released a series of proposals for responding to the pandemic in recent weeks, and has criticized the Trump administration for acting too slowly.

In other developments:

➤USNS Comfort Accepting COVID Patients: Trump said that the USNS Comfort, a military hospital ship that was sent to New York City, can now accept COVID-19 patients. Governor Andrew Cuomo said that would provide, "much-needed relief." The ship had originally only been intended to be for non-coronavirus patients.

➤California Loaning 500 Ventilators: California said that it would loan out 500 of its ventilators to the national stockpile. Governor Gavin Newsom had suggested New York might get some of them, but said the federal government was best positioned to know where they should go. The White House later said the ventilators would be sent to Nevada, Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. California's move came after Washington state and Oregon earlier said they'd be sending ventilators to New York.

➤Stock Markets Rally: Stock markets around the world rallied on the news from New York, Spain and Italy of a leveling off in the daily increase of deaths. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 1,627 points, which was nearly eight percent.