New York's infection rate five times higher than rest of US: Health Expert

US health official said that New York City is the hardest-hit due to the novel coronavirus outbreak and warned that the infection rate is five times higher other areas. New York City alone has reported over 13,000 cases of COVID-19 as the United States has more than 46,000 cases of the novel coronavirus.

Speaking at a press briefing, Dr Deborah Birx said that the attack rate in the New City area is “close to one in a thousand”. She said that around 28 per cent of tests in New York have been found positive, very high as compared to eight per cent in the rest of the country. She added that New Yorkers are the group that needs to absolutely social distance and self-isolate at this time.

“Clearly the virus had been circling there for a number of weeks to have this level of penetrance into the community," said the health expert.

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Earlier, the New York State Department of Health is planning to collect plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients and inject the antibody-rich fluid into the patients suffering from the viral infection. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the plan on March 23 saying it will begin on a trial basis on seriously critical patients.

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During a press briefing, Governor Cuomo said that the New York State Department of Health has been working on it with some of New York's “best health care agencies”. Cuomo added that the old-age idea, which was also used during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, has shown promise and they will be starting the trial from this week.

Combination drug trial

New York is also starting drug trials with the combination of Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, and Zithromax, antibiotic, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for compassionate care use last week. US President Donald Trump had also tweeted about the drug combination and said that it could the “biggest game-changers”.

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