The number of deaths from nCoV doubled in three days, the US president considered quarantining New York

The death toll in the US rose to 2,047 after 351 new cases were recorded, with New York City, the hardest-hit city, accounting for a quarter, according to Johns Hopkins University. A newborn baby in Chicago, Illinois, was among the new deaths, marking an extremely rare case in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The US also recorded 18,120 more infections, bringing the total number of infections to 122,426, the largest epidemic area in the world.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on March 28 that the state now has 52,318 cases and at least 728 deaths from the pandemic, with 172 people admitted to intensive care units. The state has tested a total of 155,934 people.

New York’s health care system is overwhelmed. One hospital has built a makeshift morgue, while another has recorded 13 deaths in 24 hours. The state and the National Guard are rushing to build four field hospitals with a total of 4,000 beds to cope. Cuomo has warned that it could take another 21 days for the outbreak to peak in the state.

The new figures come as US President Donald Trump said he was considering quarantining New York to slow the city's transformation into the epicenter of the pandemic.

"We're probably going to do a short-term quarantine today, about two weeks, in New York, and maybe also in New Jersey, certain areas of Connecticut," Trump said on March 28, adding that it was important to protect Florida, a favorite winter vacation destination for people in the northeast.

Cuomo has rejected the idea, claiming the president did not discuss it with him.

"If we say we restrict people geographically, that would be a lockdown. Then we'd turn into Wuhan and that wouldn't make any sense," Cuomo said, referring to the city in China's Hubei province where the outbreak began and where it has been almost completely isolated. The New York governor also said such action was illegal and ineffective.

Meanwhile, several states are at risk of becoming new hotbeds of the outbreak. Los Angeles County, California, has seen its number of coronavirus cases triple in just six days, and the growth is not slowing down. New hotbeds could emerge in Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans. Hospitals and health officials in Chicago, Illinois, are bracing for a surge in patients.

In Louisiana, where the death toll has risen more than 40% in a single day and shows no signs of abating, hospitals are overwhelmed. New Orleans, the epicenter of the state’s outbreak, is running low on ventilators and other Covid-19 equipment.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 27 approved the use of a new nCoV test kit produced by Abbott Laboratories, which provides results in less than 15 minutes. Abbott Laboratories expects to provide about 50,000 test kits per day, starting next week.

US Vice President Mike Pence said new testing technology could speed up the process of testing for the coronavirus in clinics. However, the US is still facing a shortage of medical supplies used in the process of collecting samples, such as masks and swabs.

Covid-19 has appeared in 199 countries and territories after starting in Wuhan in December 2019. The epidemic has infected more than 660,000 people and killed more than 30,000. Italy is the country with the highest number of deaths, with more than 10,000 cases.