Why the US has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world?

The United States has now overtaken the country China and Italy to have the most confirmed COVID-19 cases, making it the epicenter of the pandemic, in the world.

Talking about numbers,  by 10th of April, 475, 237 cases have been recorded with 17, 055 deaths on record.

While the virus is said to first emerge in China in the month of late December last year, The United States noted its first case on 22nd January, in Washington, and since then the number has stated surging.

The very reason why the COVID number is surging exponentially in the US is downplaying the seriousness of the crisis initially in the state. The mishandling of the situation and the president’s easy-going behaviour on such pandemic has worsened the situation.

The president has put a voluntary national shutdown for a month, Since the lock-down is voluntary it allows people to move if they wish to.  Donald Trump firmly believes that the United States cannot be shut down completely. The decision is condemned by health experts worldwide.

Trump is criticized for the way he is dealing with the situation and how he is more focused on the economy than public health.

America is terribly behind on the testing capacity and is also lagging in accomplishing contact tracing on the scale that was required.

There was a slow supply of the PPE (personal protective equipment )  like masks. Other medical equipment including ventilators also remains in short supply to the hospitals in the US.

New York City, where most of the coronavirus cases are recorded,  is now experiencing a huge surge of patients and deaths. The doctors, nurses, and other medical staff have now taken to social media, Facebook and Instagram, and to alarm about the situation of besieged hospitals not having enough protective equipment for the staff. One such video was of Dr. Smith said that “We had to get a refrigerated truck to store the bodies of patients, who are dying,” she showed the truck, parked in an alley.

She added: “From our perspective, everything is not fine. I don’t have the support that I need and even just the materials that I need physically to take care of my patients. We’re America, we’re supposed to be a First World country.”

cover image source- Reuters/Mike Blake