Doctors as Virus Cases in US Pass 100K: 'We Are Scared'

Just two days ago, there were about 82,000 cases of the coronavirus in the United States, making it the country with the most cases in the world. Now that count has surpassed 100,000, per Reuters, which reports the US number rose by about 18,000 on Friday—the highest jump in a single day yet. Stats from a Johns Hopkins database put the number of confirmed cases as of Saturday morning at around 104,800, with total deaths at just upward of 1,700. Italy also marked a grim milestone, passing China to become the country with the second-highest number of cases, at about 86,500; China is hovering at nearly 82,000. The Guardian reports that the number of worldwide cases has now exceeded 600,000, with Johns Hopkins putting that figure at almost 608,000.

Reuters notes that, as the numbers keep rising, hospitals in hard-hit US areas like New York City are struggling to turn up medical equipment, drugs, and staff to contend with the outbreak. "We are scared," a doctor at Brooklyn's Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center says. "We're trying to fight for everyone else's life, but we also fight for our lives as well, because we're also at the highest risk of exposure." A Michigan doctor posted a video on Twitter Thursday night pleading for help on the equipment side. "We have hospital systems here in the Detroit area in Michigan who are getting to the end of their supply of ventilators, and they're going to have to start telling families that they can't save their loved ones because they don't have enough equipment," Dr. Rob Davidson noted. (More coronavirus stories.)