Since China informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the Coronavirus outbreak, which initially looks like a pneumonia-like disease, at least 430,000 people have arrived in the US on direct flights from China, as per an analysis of data collected in both countries.
It should be noted that a huge number of people who were of multiple nationalities arrived in January at airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Newark and Detroit. It should be noted that Asian Americans are facing a hard time to deal with racially motivated attacks on them due to the outbreak and some Americans are treating them as the carriers of the virus.
Meanwhile, Dr Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, warns mortality will peak in New York, New Orleans and Detroit next week.
Travellers from China in US
As per the travel data, thousands of these passengers flew directly from Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, as American public health officials were just beginning to assess the risks to the US. In the past week flights carrying passengers from Beijing landed at Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, under rules that exempt Americans and some others from the clampdown that took effect on February 2. Since then 279 flights from China landed on American soil and screening procedures have been uneven.
As reported by The New York Times, the analysis of the flight data revealed that the implemented travel measures may have come late. Meanwhile, experts claimed that the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks after CDC confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in the US on January 20.
US Coronavirus Pandemic
It should be mentioned recently it was revealed that initially China misled the whole world and hide outbreak details for international communities. Which is why at that time no travellers from China were screened for potential exposure to the virus in the US during the first half of January.
The authorities started the screening procedure in mid-January only at the airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. By that time around 4,000 people have already arrived the US from Wuhan, revealed VariFlight, an aviation data company based in China.
As per the aviation data in January, more than 1,300 flights from China arrived at 17 US airports. US Department of Commerce data showed that particularly in that month around 381,000 passengers visited the US from China. It also revealed that most of the Chinese passengers landed in Los Angeles followed by San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Newark, Detroit, Washington, Boston, Dallas, Honolulu, Atlanta, Houston, San Jose, LA, Denver and St. Louis.
US to witness maximum COVID-19 death cases
During the White House brief Dr Deborah Birx said:
"The Detroit area, the New York area, the Louisiana area ... They're all on the upside of the curve of mortality.
"By the predictions that are in that healthdata.org, they're predicting in those three hotspots, all of them hitting together in the next six to seven days."
As US President Donald Trump announced that 1,000 military personnel are going to be deployed to New York City to help fight the coronavirus, on Saturday he mentioned that US will see its toughest week as COVID-19 deaths might drastically increase and expressed his growing impatience in the reopening of the country's economy.
