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U.S. Poised to Pass Italy With World’s Deadliest Virus Outbreak

U.S. Poised to Pass Italy With World’s Deadliest Virus Outbreak

(Bloomberg) --

The U.S. is on track for a grim milestone in the coming days -- passing Italy as the world’s epicenter of Covid-19 mortality.

Deaths from the virus were at about 14,800 in the U.S. as of Thursday morning and still accelerating, while Italy had more than 17,600 fatalities and the pace was beginning to slow, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The U.S. has logged about 2,000 deaths each of the past two days, while in Italy, the number has hovered around 550 daily deaths.

U.S. Poised to Pass Italy With World’s Deadliest Virus Outbreak

While the numbers appear stark, the U.S. population is five times that of Italy’s. Combined deaths for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. -- a closer comparison to the 330 million Americans -- total more than 52,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Those statistics may also be incomplete, thanks to differences in testing and reporting among countries.

The U.S. -- like much of Europe -- failed to enact widespread measures like mass testing and social distancing early enough to prevent the virus from taking hold. Parts of the country still haven’t locked down, creating the opportunity for wider spread in places that haven’t suffered as much as hot spots in New York and Detroit.

And the U.S. had the advantage of time before the pandemic struck. Policymakers had two previews of what was coming, first from China in January and then from Europe just weeks later. Critics have charged that precious time was squandered in January and February without building testing capacity or stockpiling medical supplies that are now hard to find. By Feb. 26, Italy had begun taking steps unseen in generations by locking down whole towns and regions beset by the virus.

That day, President Donald Trump said at a White House press briefing that the U.S. had the situation “so well under control.” There were only 15 cases of coronavirus across the country, he said, and “we’re going very substantially down, not up.”

As of Thursday morning, the U.S. had more than 432,000 reported cases.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.