The American president also used for the first time war-time powers under the Defense Production Act, under increasing pressure from state governors, to force a private company, General Motors, to ramp up production of ventilators needed to treat severely ill Covid-19 patients.
The United States on Friday became the first country to report 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases as President Donald Trump signed into law a $2 trillion emergency spending bill aimed at protecting average American families and businesses from economic hardships caused by the outbreak.
The American president also used for the first time war-time powers under the Defense Production Act, under increasing pressure from state governors, to force a private company, General Motors, to ramp up production of ventilators needed to treat severely ill Covid-19 patients.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continued to climb aggressively, meanwhile, and crossed the 100,000- mark, a first anywhere in the world. It ended Friday at 101, 657, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker; almost 14,000 more than the next worst-hit Italy (86,498). China (81,897) is in third place. The number of US death also continued to climb, to 1,581. New York state drove the surge with 527 fatalities (and 44,876 confirmed cases, also the most for any US state), the bulk of which were accounted for by New York City, 366. Other states with high fatalities are Washington, New Jersey and California.
The United States had crossed 10,000 just over a week ago, on March 19. The exponential increase in the number of reported cases has raised fears that the world’s richest country could become the next epicenter of the pandemic, with a world aggregated total of 593,291; and 27,198 deaths.
“We didn’t choose it but we are going to defeat it together because we’re going to work together, and this is the first start of it,” President Trump said of the public health emergency facing the country as he signed the stimulus package bill into law, flanked by his top officials and top Republican lawmakers.
The bill, which was passed by the Senate earlier in the week, cleared the House with the help of parliamentary maneuverings executed jointly by Democrats, who control the chamber, and Republicans to thwart opposition from a Republican lawmaker denounced by Trump as a “grandstander”.
The $2.2 trillion relief package, reported to be the largest in living memory by US media, includes direct payments to a third of Americans, ramped up unemployment benefits, and loans for small and large businesses hit by the coronavirus outbreak, It also sets aside allocations for state and city governments.
