After China and then Europe, the disease is now progressing the fastest in the United States. With 18,860 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University, the country became the hardest hit in the world by the coronavirus this Saturday. New York State is the new epicenter of the epidemic. On its own, it has counted more infections than any country in the world. More than 170,000 cases have been identified there. The Covid-19 killed nearly 8,000 people there, including 5,820 victims in New York alone.
A shock symbol of the epidemic, sketchy coffins are buried in a mass grave on Hart Island. This island in the northeast of the Bronx, long nicknamed "the island of the dead" because used since the 19th century as a vast cemetery for the destitute, today hosts 24 burials per day, against 25 on average per week before the pandemic . Public schools will not reopen until the end of the school year.
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Why is this state of 20 million people so badly affected? Did he underestimate the severity of the pandemic and take too long to take radical action?
- Was New York more vulnerable?
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has often repeated it: New York, which officially has 8.6 million inhabitants, is a particularly dense megalopolis: more than 10,000 inhabitants per km2. A breeding ground for the spread of infectious diseases. Millions of people use the metro and other public transport every day.
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It is also one of the world's leading tourist destinations: more than 60 million tourists a year. A virus that has appeared abroad is therefore very likely to spread there. According to American geneticists, it began to spread to New York in February, from Europe. A study published in mid-March by the educational blog Clever ranked New York as the “most vulnerable” city to the epidemic in the United States, ahead of San Francisco, Washington, Detroit and Miami.
New York, which officially has 8.6 million inhabitants, is a particularly dense megalopolis: more than 10,000 inhabitants per km2. Johannes Eisele / AFP
The metropolis is also characterized by strong socio-economic inequalities, situations of overcrowding in certain working-class neighborhoods, such as Queens or the Bronx. Many people there already suffer from health problems, without access to care. These areas are the most affected today, with for example an infection rate in the Bronx twice that of Manhattan.
- Have New York officials underestimated the risk?
On March 2, the day after the first confirmed case in New York and while another case was detected in the northern suburbs of New Rochelle, with a lawyer traveling daily to Manhattan, Governor Cuomo boasted that the city had "the best health system of the planet ” . After much hesitation, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the closure of public schools, bars and restaurants starting March 16.
Mayor and governor were pressured to the contrary
Irwin Redlener, Professor of Public Health, Columbia UniversityThe governor ordered the containment and closure of non-essential activities a week later, March 22. "The mayor and the governor were subjected to opposite pressures" , comments Irwin Redlener, professor of public health of Columbia university questioned by AFP. "Some were pushing to close schools quickly" , "others were emphasizing the economic and social consequences" . "The messages were confused."
- Have other states responded better?
California, the most populous state in the United States, is often cited as an example for the speed of its response to the epidemic. The number of cases was Friday of some 20,200, for 50 deaths.
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"What is noteworthy is that six counties in the San Francisco region got together, as of March 16, to issue a containment order" , followed on March 19 by the containment of the entire State, told AFP Meghan McGinty, disaster prevention expert at Johns-Hopkins University. "There was real consistency" while, in the New York region, each county made its decisions without consultation, she said.
More than 170,000 cases have been identified in New York State and the Covid-19 has killed nearly 8,000 people there. AFP / Bryan R. Smith
Six days passed between the closing of the schools and the order of containment in New York, she recalls. "In terms of the epidemic, six days are light years (...) and we can perhaps say, a posteriori, that New York waited too long" .
- Whose fault is it?
The mayor and the governor of New York deplore for weeks the delay initially taken by the government of Donald Trump in the provision of tests to the states, today still insufficient to take the full measure of the epidemic.
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While the toll of the disease in New York far exceeds that of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, neighboring New York also very affected, asked that a commission be set up, after the epidemic, along the lines of the one created after 9/11 to look for mistakes.
"There were red flags, what happened?" launched Andrew Cuomo on Friday. "Without an answer, how can we make sure it doesn't happen again?"