indica News Bureau-
US President Donald Trump gave a clarion call to fellow Americans to “stay home and save lives” as the number of people infected by the deadly coronavirus continues to soar from coast to coast and has crossed the 300,000 mark globally.
As of Saturday, there were at least 33,276 confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus in the US, an increase of more than 7,000 in one day alone, with the death toll reaching 400, reported Johns Hopkins University.
“We say, ‘stay at home and save lives.’ This is a time of shared national sacrifice, but it’s also a time to treasure our loved ones and to take stock of what is most important: our faith, our families, our neighbors, and our great country,” Trump told reporters at a White House news conference.
With States and local governments issuing orders to stay at home, about 75 million residents in California, Illinois, New York and Connecticut have been directed to sequester. Connecticut has even said that people would be imposed fine in case of any violation.
“We are going to have a great victory. We’re going to be celebrating a great victory in the not-too-distant future,” added the President.
Joining the fight against the novel coronavirus, almost all temples and gurudwaras in the US have announced that they have closed for public services. Almost all the Indian-American community events across America have been canceled.
Several Indian-American non-profit bodies have been running 24X7 helpline and providing food to the needy.
Sewa International is one of them.
“We have set up four helplines in different parts of USA, ” said Achalesh Amar, Director, Disaster Relief, Sewa International.
Amar told indica several international students were sick in Houston and they were tested for coronavirus.
“They suspected they have some symptoms, but the result was negative,” he said., “We helped arrange the doctor and are guiding students if they need to be tested, where to go.”
Amar did not disclose the names of the students and the doctors due to confidentiality said they have asked them to maintain hygrine. And take excess precautions and Sewa volunteers have been delivering masks and gloves for free since the outbreak of COVID-19.
There are 36 volunteers in Houston and 400 volunteers nationwide serving at 20 chapters in the US.
He said support is also coming in from people and a woman in Houston offered girl students her apartment for free.
According to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, the death toll from the virus globally has risen to 13,044 with 307,104 cases reported in 171 countries and territories.
Trump also assured that there is no shortage of food material and essential commodities as he thanked companies like Walmart and other grocery stores to make sure that there their shelves were stacked with essential items.”They are doing incredible. They have put on tremendous extra staff. You don’t have empty shelves. Lot of things have happened that are very good,” he said.
In addition, Trump also had a telephonic conversation with religious leaders of the country.The US, he said, has dramatically expanded telehealth, so Americans can see a doctor without leaving home. This is — something which more and more people are using, he said.
“I think we’re going to change the way our country functions, medically and probably in other ways, because of what’s going on right now. This will reduce the chance of infection and preserve hospital capacity. So it solves a lot of problems,” Trump said.
“Every American has a role to play in defending our nation from this invisible, horrible enemy. It really is an invisible enemy. We will be very successful — hopefully very much sooner than people would even think,” said the US president.
Seeing no quick fix to the pandemic, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has partially lifted an import alert on Ipca Laboratories in Madhya Pradesh, India, to ensure the supply of hydroxychloroquine sulphate and chloroquine phosphate, considered to be one of the possible treatments for the infections.
However, the 79-year-old Anthony Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has shown that there was no substantial proof that the malaria drug is a potential treatment against coronavirus. Fauci made plain that the drug’s effectiveness against the coronavirus is unproven.
“No. The answer is no,” Fauci, who was standing alongside Trump, said in response to a question about whether any evidence indicates that the drug might work. What evidence there is, he said, remains “anecdotal,” reported The Atlantic.
Fauci further said that he has advised six presidents since he became the head of NIAID in 1984. But he’s never seen a disease quite like COVID-19, nor has he ever worked for a president quite like Trump.
“What we have right now is something that’s very different and very acute and very threatening. And the reason people are getting anxious about it—in some respects, appropriately so—is because it seems that no one is safe from this. It’s a diffuse respiratory illness that has a high degree of morbidity and mortality, particularly among certain vulnerable populations, like the elderly and those with underlying conditions. This is unprecedented. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like this”, he said.
He added that for such a pandemic, a country cannot be prepared enough despite all efforts.
“If you have an overwhelming pandemic, there’s almost no degree of preparedness that can prevent all the suffering and death. There are relative degrees of preparedness. And in that regard, [the U.S. leads] in the level of preparedness. But, obviously, as you can see [with] what is playing out right now, when you have something with the force of a pandemic, it appears that you are not well prepared” he said.
Fauci added, “We have 12,700 ventilators in the strategic national stockpile. Why not put 100,000 in there? There would not have been any enthusiasm on anybody’s part to spend that much money to do that. Now, retrospectively, when you look back, you say, Oh my God, why didn’t we put 100,000 ventilators in there?” he added.
