So much for the recovery rally.
A day after the Dow Jones rocketed 1,100 points as Joe Biden pushed ahead of Bernie Sanders, the index is plunging again on coronavirus fears.
All after California declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus following the first confirmed death in the state. California now has the largest number of cases in the U.S. at more than 50 followed by Washington state, which has 44.
Worse, according to a former director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), as noted by CNBC, the country has confirmed only a fraction of the total number of virus cases. “We still don’t have anywhere near full visibility on total cases in the U.S. because of the testing shortfalls,” Jeremy Konyndyk said. “What we’re seeing so far in terms of official case numbers in the U.S. is probably just the tip of the iceberg.”
As of Thursday, a total of 159 cases were confirmed. Eleven people have died.
More than 100,000 May be Infected
And, according to Yale professor, Howard Forman, a radiologist and expert in healthcare management, as quoted by Business Insider, “”It is well within the realm of possibility that there are 100,000 people infected with this right now in the United States. Healthcare providers may be being exposed, other patients may be being exposed, and until you can give confidence to people about those answers, we are in a crisis here.”
He added that, “There is absolutely going to be an explosion in the number of identified cases. But how fast that number increases is highly dependent on how fast we can test.” Unfortunately, because of flawed tests, and poor funding, wider testing has been impossible.
Hospitals are Not Prepared for the Virus Outbreak
According to the World Health Organization, world hospitals are not prepared for the outbreak.
Health systems are “just not ready” for a COVID-19 epidemic, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, as quoted by CNBC.
“We’ve already seen in countries, and quite sophisticated countries, who’ve had a rapid rise in cases in the last week are having trouble coping with the clinical caseloads,” he said.
“We need to keep this virus slowed down, because health systems around the world, and I mean North and South, are just not ready.”
Crisis is Creating Opportunity for Investors
Stocks like 3M (MMM) and Alpha Pro Tech (APT) are surging on demand for face masks – especially after Vice President Mike Pence said, “We’ve contracted now with 3M. Thirty-five million more masks per month will be produced, and we’re also going to be working with other manufacturers. We’re going to make sure and protect the health of our healthcare providers. As the President said, we have more than 40 million masks available today.”
