US City's Outbreak Is 'Off the Charts'

As the United States led the world with confirmed coronavirus cases, cities such as Detroit, Chicago, and New Orleans grew as hotspots Saturday, while the virus continued to pummel New York City and made its way into rural America, the AP reports. Worldwide infections approached the 650,000 mark with more than 30,000 deaths as new cases also stacked up quickly in Europe, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The US leads the world in reported cases with more than 115,000, but five countries exceed its roughly 1,700 deaths: Italy, Spain, China, Iran, and France. Italy alone now has 10,023 deaths, the most of any country. For more around the US:

• New York remained the worst-hit US city. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said defeating the virus will take "weeks and weeks and weeks." The UN donated 250,000 face masks to the city and Cuomo delayed the state's presidential primary from April 28 to June 23.
• Cases also have been rising rapidly in Detroit, where poverty and poor health have been problems for years. The number of infections surged to 1,381, with 31 deaths, as of noon Saturday. A Detroit doctor called the city's trajectory "even more steep than New York" and "off the charts."
• Louisiana has surpassed 3,300 infections, with 137 dead from COVID-19, according to the health department. Gov. John Bel Edwards said the region was on track to run out of ventilators by the first week of April.
• Cases in Chicago and suburban Cook County accounted for about three-fourths of Illinois' 3,026 total as of Friday. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot closed popular lakeshore parks after people failed to practice social distancing, despite a statewide shelter-at-home order.
• Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Michigan, providing money for the outbreak. He has done the same for New York, Louisiana, and Illinois.
• The governor of Kansas also issued a stay-at-home order to begin Monday, as the virus takes hold in more rural areas, where doctors worry about the lack of ICU beds.

(More coronavirus stories.)