An infant in Illinois under the age of one has died after testing positive for coronavirus.
‘There has never been a case of COVID-19 death in an infant,’ said Illinois Public Health Director, Dr Ngozi Ezike.
‘If you haven’t been paying attention, maybe this is your wake-up call, Ezike said.
The child was among 13 new deaths recorded in Illinois, which now has a coronavirus death toll of 47.
Also among the deaths was an employee at the Department of Human Services.
During a press conference on Saturday, Governor Jay Pritzker said: ‘Upon hearing it, I admit I was shaken.
‘We should grieve with our family of state employees, with the many people we’ve already lost to this virus, young and old.’
Illinois is under a stay-at-home order, with all non-essential business and travel banned.
Meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said today that President Trump’s proposed quarantine of New York to limit the spread of coronavirus would be tantamount to a ‘federal declaration of war.’
‘If you start walling off areas all across the country it would just be totally bizarre, counter-productive, anti-American, anti-social,’ said Cuomo in an interview.
Trump said earlier today that he is considering quarantining ‘heavily infected’ New York, and parts of Connecticut and New Jersey, in a desperate effort to slow the spread of coronavirus.
‘This is a civil war kind of discussion,’ Cuomo said of the proposal. ‘I don’t believe that any administration could be serious about physical lockdowns of states.’
Cuomo said that it would probably be illegal to quarantine New York, as well as totally ineffective, given the rise of other virus hotspots in the country such as New Orleans.
‘It makes absolutely no sense and I don’t think any serious governmental personality or professional would support it,’ Cuomo said.
Trump’s proposed quarantine would restrict travel to and from the three states, which are some of the hardest-hit by the outbreak, as it emerged that 209 people died in New York state in the last 24 hours.
New York state now has at least 52,318 confirmed cases, nearly half the national total of more than 113,000.
In New York City alone, there are 29,766 confirmed cases, and there have been at least 450 deaths.
‘Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it’s a hotspot — New York, New Jersey maybe one or two other places, certain parts of Connecticut quarantined. I’m thinking about that right now,’ he said today.
Cuomo said he had spoken with Trump earlier Saturday and the two had not discussed a possible quarantine. The governors of New Jersey and Connecticut also said that they had not spoken with Trump about a potential quarantine.
It was not clear whether Trump would be able to block road, air and sea travel out of a region that serves as the economic engine of the eastern United States, accounting for 10 percent of the population and 12 percent of GDP.
Some states have already imposed limits. New Yorkers arriving in Texas, Florida and Rhode Island face orders to self-isolate if they intend to stay.
The number of coronavirus patients in California hospitals increased by more than one-third overnight, Governor Gavin Newsom said.
Officials in Louisiana, where Mardi Gras celebrations late last month in New Orleans fueled an outbreak, reported 17 additional deaths and 569 new cases on Saturday.