President Donald Trump signed the historic stimulus package into law, U.S. infections roared past 100,000, and Disney parks throughout the nation will be closed indefinitely as the coronavirus plants itself even deeper into the American landscape.
Among the hardest-hit states is New York, at the forefront of the nation’s death count with nearly 400. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced schools will be closed until April 15 and said hospitals will soon have an overwhelming need for respirators.
Droves of New Yorkers have been leaving the state – only to find their neighboring communities are not always welcoming. Rhode Island State Police on Friday began pulling over drivers with New York plates so that National Guard officials can collect contact information and inform them of a mandatory, 14-day quarantine for anyone who visited or lives in New York state.
The road home for other Americans got a little easier this week as nearly 300 U.S. citizens stranded in Central America have returned to the U.S. aboard jets used by U.S. immigration authorities that are normally used in deportations.
The U.S. counted more than 105,000 cases of coronavirus early Saturday, with at least 1,700 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. More confirmations are expected as the U.S. ramps up testing.
More than 600,000 people are known to have been infected globally, and roughly 27,000 have died.
