One doctor at a New York City hospital recounted arriving at work on Friday to learn that three of his COVID-19 patients had died that morning. A few hours later, he had intubated two others.
"I've never seen anything like this. I've never even heard of something like this in the developed world," he said, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk with the media.
Another physician, Dr. Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at New York's Columbia University Medical Center, described the scene inside tents set up outside hospitals to help contain an increasing influx of patients.
"In those same tents, I saw too much pain, loneliness, and death. People dying alone," he wrote on Twitter on Thursday night.
In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy ordered all flags lowered to half-staff for as long as the emergency lasts, saying his state was the first to take such a measure.
Fresh data on Friday highlighted the economic consequences of the public health crisis, confirming that hundreds of thousands of Americans had lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Economists said actual job losses were far greater but had yet to be reflected in employment figures as much of the economy had only begun to shut down last month.
“What we are watching in real time is the greatest bloodletting in the American labor market since the Great Depression,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM in Austin, Texas.
The pandemic was posing side-effects even for law enforcement.
New York State Police on Friday reported a 15% increase in incidents of domestic violence in March, compared to the same month in 2019.
