Tougher restrictive measures taken across US as confirmed COVID-19 cases near 20,000

AFP

The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States reached 19,624 as of 11pm on Friday (3am GMT on Saturday), up about 5,000 from the previous day, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 260 fatalities have been reported, with 83 in Washington state and 46 in New York state, according to the center.

The country has stepped up border restriction. The US State Department on Thursday raised its travel advisory worldwide to unprecedented Level 4, which instructs US citizens to avoid all international travels amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a press briefing that the United States and Mexico have agreed to restrict non-essential travel along their border to counter the COVID-19 outbreak.

The restriction is similar to the one regarding the US-Canada border that the Trump administration announced on Wednesday. Both restrictions will go into effect on Saturday and not apply to trade and commerce, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said at the briefing.

A week ago, US travel restrictions against European countries already came into force.

Also on Friday at the same press briefing, US Vice President Mike Pence said that his country is making efforts to secure more masks for health care workers as well as more ventilators for sick Americans who may need treatment.

"We have a policy of procuring, allocating as well as conserving the resources that we have in our system," he said, adding that his government has identified tens of thousands of existing ventilators that can be retrofitted and converted to help coronavirus patients.

Pence urged every American to postpone elective medical procedures over concerns of insufficient ventilators.

Across the country, more states, including Illinois, Connecticut and New York, have announced mandates that require people to stay at home as much as possible and order non-essential businesses to close.

Essential industries such as grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, health care providers and gas stations would be exempted from the mandate.

In New York, the hardest-hit state of COVID-19 in the country, the mandate will be in effect Sunday evening. Governor Andrew Cuomo called it "the most drastic measures we can take" at a press conference on Friday.

Over 8,400 cases were reported in the Empire State with 260 deaths as of Friday night, according to the CSSE.

The governor asked the public to "remain indoors to the greatest extent" to protect their health. Non-essential gatherings of individuals of any size and for any reason should be canceled and the use of public transit should be limited.

Any businesses violating the order would be fined and forced to close, while the state has no plan to fine individuals who violate the regulations, he said.

Meanwhile, nearly three in four Americans now say their lives have been changed in some way by the coronavirus outbreak, according to a new poll released on Friday.

In this week's ABC News/Ipsos poll, 72 percent of the people surveyed said that their lives have been disrupted in some way by the coronavirus, either by canceling going out to dinner, taking a vacation, or attending religious services, among other options. Only about one-quarter of Americans said the same last week.

Seventy-nine percent of the surveyed said they are concerned that they or someone they know will be infected, up from last week's 66 percent.

The poll finds now 55 percent of Americans approve of President Donald Trump's management of the coronavirus crisis, compared with 43 percent who disapprove. Last week, only 43 percent approved of Trump's handling of the pandemic and 54 percent disapproved.