Coronavirus killing one person every 17 minutes in New York

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

March 28, 2020 at 09:35

A woman crosses Fifth Avenue in New York City, where the coronavirus is reportedly claiming one life every 17 minutes. Picture: Angela Weiss / AFP.Source:AFP

It’s one of the most infectious and deadly viruses the world has seen and new stats have revealed just how lethal COVID-19 is.

For the past two days, New Yorkers have been dying at a rate of one every 17 minutes, according to the latest grim citywide statistics.

On both Thursday and Friday, another 84 people died in the city from the coronavirus, as the number of positive cases and of those who are critically ill also climbed.

The COVID-19 death toll in the city was 450 as of Friday evening, up from 366 reported fatalities in the morning according to the New York Post.

Total citywide coronavirus cases rose to 26,697, up 4.4 per cent from the 25,573 reported in the morning.

Mayor de Blasio warned Friday that critical resources to combat the outbreak in the country’s epicentre could run out by Sunday, April 5, as hospitals remain completely overwhelmed.

New York’s mayor has voiced his concern about fast-dwindling resources. Picture: Supplied.Source:AFP

“After next Sunday, April 5th is when I get very, very worried about everything we’re going to need,” Mr de Blasio said during a briefing on the virus Friday.

“The people power we’re going to need, the equipment, the supplies, obviously the ventilators.”

The coronavirus has hospitalised 5,250 people in New York City and the number of patients requiring ICU treatment rose significantly over the last 24 hours. A total of 1,175 patients are in ICUs, a 37.6 per cent rise from the 850 that needed such care as of Thursday evening.

Queens continues to lead the five boroughs with 8,529 confirmed cases, followed by Brooklyn with 7,091, The Bronx with 4,880, Manhattan with 4,627 and Staten Island with 1,534.

This article first appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.