Breaking: US Coronavirus deaths jump over 80,000, Trump heaps blame on democrats

The US coronavirus death toll passed 80,000, far and away the most reported deaths of any country in the world, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

America marked that grim death toll Monday as almost every state, except for Connecticut and Massachusetts, have made plans to partially reopen some businesses, CNN is reporting.

In New York, where there have been more than 26,000 deaths, coronavirus infection and hospitalization rates are down to where they were nearly two months ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. In the past day, 488 coronavirus patients were admitted to hospitals, similar to the state total from March 19, and 161 people died over the past day, near the same level of deaths as on March 26.

“In many ways, we’re on the other side of the mountain,” he said on Monday.

As such, Cuomo said parts of upstate New York will be able to begin a phased reopening on Friday when the state’s shutdown order expires.

He has said that regions can reopen in phases if they hit seven specific criteria, including 14-day declines in hospitalizations and deaths, hospital bed availability, testing capacity and contact tracing.

New York City has hit just four of the seven metrics to reopen.

New York has been the epicenter of America’s coronavirus outbreak and has had more confirmed coronavirus deaths, nearly 27,000, than all but a few countries. At the peak of the state’s outbreak, more than 750 people died every day from April 7 to April 11, and the decline since then has been “painfully slow,” Cuomo said last week.

Cuomo emphasised that the reopening will be done “intelligently” and contrasted his reopening plan with that of other states that are reopening despite not hitting the CDC’s guidelines to do so.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has accused Democrats of moving to reopen U.S. states from coronavirus lockdown measures too slowly for political advantage on Monday.

The Republican president, who is running for re-election in November, is working to reopen the crippled economy quickly against recommendations from health experts to move more cautiously to avoid a resurgence of the virus that has so far killed more than 80,000 people in the United States.

Trump has encouraged states to ease restrictions designed to mitigate the spread of the new coronavirus, Mirror reports.

On Monday, he targeted the election battleground state of Pennsylvania, which has a Democratic governor, Tom Wolf.

“The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now, and they are fully aware of what that entails.

“The Democrats are moving slowly, all over the USA, for political purposes.

“They would wait until November 3rd if it were up to them. Don’t play politics. Be safe, move quickly!” Trump said in a Twitter post.

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