US coronavirus deaths rise as New York City braces for park burial possibility

• City may have to set up temporary burial sites – top official
• Cuomo says ‘social distancing is working’ in worst-hit state

Tom McCarthy and Martin Pengelly
Mon 6 Apr 2020 19.44 BST
Last modified on Mon 6 Apr 2020 20.36 BST

As the death toll from coronavirus in the US climbed toward 10,000, a New York City official warned it could establish temporary burial grounds in city parks and new polling showed an erosion in public trust in Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis.

Confirmed cases in the US were approaching 340,000 as of Monday morning, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The death toll stood at 9,650.

Many hospitals across the US were at capacity, and new hotspots or potential hotspots were springing up in every region. Maps of confirmed cases showed clusters from Atlanta to Nashville to Indianapolis – wherever there was a population center.

Trump on Monday morning tweeted “USA strong!” and “Light at the end of the tunnel!” in all capital letters.

But new polling by the Public Opinion Research Lab at the University of North Florida indicated that voters in the key presidential election battleground state have lost trust in the president. A 53% majority of Floridians in the poll disapproved of Trump’s handling of the crisis, and 58% said they did not trust Trump “to provide reliable information about the coronavirus”.

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