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Americans spend grim Easter Sunday at home as COVID-19 deaths near 22,000

Published 04/12/2020, 10:16 AM
Updated 04/12/2020, 07:11 PM
© Reuters. A couple embrace as a few people take to the steps at the Lincoln Memorial during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, where normally thousands of Christians would gather for worship at Easter sunrise, in Washington

© Reuters. A couple embrace as a few people take to the steps at the Lincoln Memorial during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, where normally thousands of Christians would gather for worship at Easter sunrise, in Washington

By Barbara Goldberg and Dan Whitcomb

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Americans spent a glum Easter Sunday largely confined to their homes by the still-raging coronavirus pandemic as the U.S. death toll neared 22,000, with more than half a million confirmed cases nationwide.

With 42 states imposing strict stay-at-home orders most churches were shuttered, although many erected crosses outside or even offered drive-through services conducted by priests, pastors or ministers wearing latex gloves and surgical masks.

Other Americans turned to online church services to mark the holiest day in the Christian calendar.

In Louisiana, the evangelical Life Tabernacle megachurch near Baton Rouge defied local government orders to shut down, holding its Easter Sunday service as planned, said Reverend Tony Spell.

"Our rights come from our creator, not from a governing body," Spell told Reuters, adding people traveled from across the region to attend.

In some states, attempts by authorities to clamp down on Easter services have sparked legal battles over the rights of government to prevent Americans from attending church, even under pandemic conditions.

On Saturday, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld an executive order barring more than 10 people from gathering for religious and funeral services. The decision, a victory for Democratic Governor Laura Kelly, followed an attempt by a Republican-led legislative body to overturn the order.

The United States, with the world's third-largest population, has recorded more fatalities from COVID-19 than any other country, nearly 22,000 as of Sunday evening according to a Reuters tally.

Roughly 2,000 deaths a day were reported for the last four days in a row, the largest number in and around New York City. Even that is viewed as understated, as New York is still figuring out how best to include a surge in deaths at home in its official statistics.

(Graphic: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S. - https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html)

As the death toll has mounted, President Donald Trump mulled when the country might begin to see a return to normality.

TRUMP EYES MAY 1

The sweeping restrictions on non-essential movement now applied to most Americans have damaged the economy, taken a painful toll on commerce and raised questions over how long business closures and travel curbs can be sustained.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits in the last three weeks surpassed 16 million.

The Trump administration sees May 1 as a potential date for easing the restrictions, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, said on Sunday. But he cautioned that it was still too early to say whether that goal would be met.

"We see light at the end of the tunnel," Hahn told ABC's "This Week," adding, "Public safety and the welfare of the American people has to come first. That has to ultimately drive these decisions."

In the latest sign of the disruption wrought by the disease, one of the nation's largest pork processing plants was shuttered after workers fell ill, and its owner warned the country was moving "perilously close to the edge" in supplies for grocers.

"It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running," Ken Sullivan, chief executive of Smithfield Foods, said in a statement on Sunday.

Dozens of workers at a beef production plant in Greeley, Colorado, have tested positive for COVID-19, according to its owner, meatpacking company JBS USA. The union representing workers at the plant said two employees have died.

In recent days, public health experts and some governors have pointed to some hopeful signs that the worst of the pandemic might be past.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top U.S. infectious disease expert, said he was cautiously optimistic and pointed to the New York metropolitan area, which had its highest daily death toll last week but also saw a decrease in hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and the need to intubate critically ill patients.

"Once you turn that corner, hopefully you'll see a very sharp decline and then you can start thinking about how we can keep it that way," Fauci told CNN's "State of the Union."

"If all of a sudden we decide 'OK, it's May whatever,' and we just turn the switch on, that could be a real problem."

Fauci and other public health experts say widespread testing will be key to efforts to reopen the economy, including antibody tests to find out who has already had the disease and could be safe to return to work.

© Reuters. Empty seats are seen during an Easter service at St. Patrick's Cathedral as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the Manhattan borough of New York City

New government data shows a summer surge in infections if stay-at-home orders are lifted after only 30 days, according to projections first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by a Department of Homeland Security official.

Latest comments

this covid cannot be controlled by govt but by people themselves . till medicine is found try to save ur family and yourself by the cheapest and best medicine ...STAYING AT HOME . If developing countires like INDIA can do it so does developed nations can . Be at HOME be safe.
Grim Easter. Filled with death and dispair. So sad. The celebration of Easter is of life and God's love. He is in control not us. This too shall pass.
If "God is in control" then how did we even get a pandemic in the first place? Nice try.
Social distancing!
When is the world going to get to the bottom of how this happened and why? There IS fault to be dealt, and there MUST be punishment. Was this virus released on purpose? Was it released through negligence? Exactly who is negligent? What is the appropriate punishment? Many thousands of lives have been lost. Billions of lives have been severely damaged. Exactly where is the outrage? This scourge WAS preventable. It MUST be avenged and made certain to never happen again! Enough conspiracy theories! Certainly the world has enough expertise to determine EXACTLY who did this to us and why. This CANNOT remain unanswered!
Uhm CHINA? We all know who is at fault along with a corrupt WHO.
Nobody "did this to us" any more than any other naturally occurring viruses or epidemics/pandemics. It's already known that the virus was originally an animal-only virus that mutated and managed to be transmitted to a human. Most likely in one of the wild animal markets in Wuhan. It then mutated again some time later and became transmissible from human to human. If u really want somebody to blame for the disaster in the US however, Trump is a pretty fair target, considering he was given memos about the potential pandemic as early as last year, but chose to do nothing more, for several weeks, than ban flights from China (after the virus had already been detected on US soil this year). He continued to downplay the risks continuously until it got so bad that he couldn't anymore.
 - - WRONG. China and The WHO claimed it was only transmittable from animal to human. They both screamed "RACISM" when President Trump was the first leader in the world to shut down air travel from China, CNN, MSNBC and socialist rags all claimed it was NOT a concern as well. The socialists dropped the ball completely while fixating on their ridiculous "impeachment" games while GOP leaders were warning the citizens. Revisionist history only has a chance when decades have past. You can't claim you didn't steal an apple when it's still in your hand..
China peak days test positive 3k, US 30k.... reopen?
Yes
the CCP has planned this well they couldn't defeat us military and the trade ear they were losing big time. now they think they can come in and buy our companies and start dictating on how we think and work. this is a ear on our freedoms. fauci is a mouth piece for the Chinese communist party. drink tonic water with quinine and take Zinc and ******* them giving us a vaccine to control us even more.
Blue states a disaster as usual
Higher population density and more international travel. Those areas will always be hit the hardest.
 - always more excuses than governing in blue states.
"It will miraculously be gone by April"  Anyone remember that soundbite of idiocy?
where exactly can I find that exact quote? Are you making things up?
Buzzy, just Google it. Trump definitely said it, along with a lot of other nonsense, at several of his rallies, and it was recorded on camera. I've seen the footage myself. They probably just choose not to show it on right-wing media.
  - Yep, I "googled it", and as always it's taken completely out of context because that's what TDSers do. They can't compete legitimately so have to lie. No wonder they're such fans of China..
Everyone they shut down the economy to protect the president life. Re opening can risk his health ad life
Stop paying hospitals for false cases and deaths.
‘Turn the corner’??Yeah right
The hospitals have been very empty. The healthcare system was never in any real danger of collapsing. There was never a corner to turn. This was a huge overreaction by foolish medical "experts" in Washington.
America so quickly falls to it knees. A complete overreaction from sea to shinning sea. Shows a weak inner foundation. 1,200,000 people die world wide each recent years yet no nation attempts to band cars. Yet they fold in blinding panic over a small virus. they beg their government for more Socalism as the only answer that will calm their shaken spirits.Was this ever really home of the free and land of the brave?
....Easier to say than to do. iIt's often impossible to turn back the hands of time. to a time that only exists in your dreams. tell us Who is gonna work at all of those millions of low paying sweat shop jobs you plan to set up?
in the world 1,200,000 people die each year from car accidents yet no nation forces all their traffic to stop. If it's ok for 1.2 million to die in cars.....with only a small whimper, why this insane over reaction by a nation that claims to be the worlds cultural beacon?
comparing apples n oranges.... I'm sure it didn't notice...
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