由新冠病毒引发的新冠肺炎目前已经导致近77万人感染。有超过3.6万人死于这种疾病。
The United States has more confirmed cases of infection than any other country. Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center's website said Monday that the U.S. has more than 153,000 confirmed infections, followed by Italy with 100,000 and Spain with 85,000. China has about 82,000.
美国的确诊人数已经超过了任何其它国家。约翰·霍普金斯大学冠状病毒资源中心的网站周一称，美国已有15.3万多人确诊，其次是意大利的10万人和西班牙的8.5万人。中国大约有8.2万人确诊。
Health officials expect the numbers of confirmed infections to rise, as more people will be tested for the virus. Countries around the world are racing to build new hospitals or adding measures to treat new patients.
卫生官员预计，随着越来越多的人接受病毒检测，确诊数字还会增加。世界各国都在竞相建造新医院或采取额外措施治疗新增患者。
A U.S. Navy hospital ship arrived in New York City while the city turned Central Park and other buildings into field hospitals to add spaces. Air Force planes flew patients from France and Italy to Germany and Switzerland to free up intensive care for coronavirus patients on life-support.
美国一艘海军医疗船抵达了纽约市，与此同时该市也将中央公园和其它建筑改为野战医院以提升收治空间。空军飞机将病人从法国和意大利运到德国和瑞士，以便腾出重症监护室用于收治需要生命维持系统的冠状病毒患者。
A nursing home official told The Associated Press that sick patients in Spain are dying because they are unable to get into overcrowded hospitals. Healthcare workers expect hospitals will not have enough ventilators -- machines that help patients breathe -- for coronavirus patients needing such treatment.
一家护理中心的官员对美联社表示，西班牙的患者正在死去，因为他们无法住进人满为患的医院。医护人员预计医院将没有足够呼吸机来帮助需要这类治疗的冠状病毒患者。
In the U.S., the non-profit Society for Critical Care Medicine estimated that as many as 900,000 coronavirus patients could need the machines during the outbreak. The United States, however, has only 200,000. Many of those machines are already being used by patients.
在美国，非营利性重症医学会估计在疫情爆发期间会有高达90万名冠状病毒患者可能需要这种机器。但是美国只有20万台呼吸机。其中大多数机器已经被患者占用。
Last Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump used his emergency power under the Defense Production Act to require that carmaker General Motors make more ventilators.
上周五，美国总统川普动用《国防生产法》赋予的紧急权力，要求汽车制造商通用汽车制造更多呼吸机。
In preparation, health officials are examining guidelines from state governments and medical groups on how to use limited resources in emergencies.
在准备工作中，卫生官员正在研究州政府和医疗组织的指导方针，了解在紧急状况下如何使用有限的资源。
For example, New York state's health department guideline excludes some seriously ill people from receiving ventilators in major emergencies. The guideline also says that age may be considered when deciding which patients would be given a ventilator.
例如，纽约州卫生部门指南在重大紧急情况将一些重症患者排除在呼吸机的使用名单之外。该指南还称，在决定为哪些患者提供呼吸机时应该要考虑其年龄。
This week, however, medical experts in Germany said age alone should not be a deciding factor in treatment for COVID-19 patients.
然而本周德国的医学专家表示，年龄不应该成为治疗新冠肺炎患者的决定性因素。
U.S. hospitals also have to decide how long a patient might need a hospital bed or ventilator and how many more lives the machine could save if it were made available to others. That means doctors could have to make decisions that they have never faced -- whether to take a patient off a ventilator to free it up for others.
美国医院还必须决定一名患者可能需要住多久院或是上多久呼吸机，以及如果将机器提供给他人使用，可以多挽救多少生命。这意味着医生可能不得不做出他们从未有过的决定 -- 是否将呼吸机从患者身上拿走，用于治疗其他人。
"I pray for their good judgment and their capacity as they make very difficult choices," said Erik Curren. His 77-year-old father died earlier this month from breathing problems related to the coronavirus at an assisted living home in Florida.
埃里克·柯伦表示：“我祈祷他们能够做出明智判断，能够有能力做出艰难选择。”他77岁的父亲于本月初在佛罗里达州一家赡养院因为与冠状病毒相关的呼吸疾病而去世。
Nancy Berlinger is with the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute. She said, "This is a really terrifying decision -- you don't want any doctor or nurse to be alone with this decision."
南希·柏林格就职于黑斯廷斯中心，这是一家生物伦理研究所。她说：“这是一个可怕的决定，我们不希望任何医护人员独自承担这个决定。”
Dr. Deborah Birx is leading the U.S. effort in the fight against COVID-19. She noted that there is no evidence yet that a hospital bed or ventilator will not be available for Americans when they need it. Even in New York, she said, beds are still available in intensive care units and a large number of ventilators are not being used.
黛博拉·伯克斯博士领导了美国抗击新冠肺炎的工作。她指出，尚无证据表明美国人在需要时无法获得医院床位或呼吸机。她说，即使是在纽约，重症监护室仍然不缺床位，并且还有大量闲置的呼吸机。
But what is happening in many countries has worried American healthcare workers.
但是很多国家正在发生的一切让美国医护人员感到担忧。
In France and Spain, hospital and nursing home officials say nursing home residents with signs of COVID-19 are not necessarily admitted to intensive care.
在法国和西班牙，医院和护理中心官员表示，有新冠肺炎症状的护理中心住客不一定能获得重症监护。
Marc Bourquin of the French Hospital Federation said in hard-hit areas, "they are hospitalized only when there is a chance to save them."
法国医院联合会的马克·布尔金表示，在疫情严重地区，“他们只有在有机会获救时才能入院治疗。”
In northern Italy, Dr. Luca Lorini at the Pope John XXIII hospital compared the treatment of coronavirus patients to the treatment of people waiting for an organ transplant.
在意大利北部，教皇约翰二十三世医院的卢卡·洛里尼博士将冠状病毒患者的治疗同等待器官移植的患者的治疗进行了对比。
"One heart and 10 people who are waiting for a heart transplant. Who gets the heart? The one who has the greatest chance of living better and longer with that heart," he said.
他说：“1颗心脏和10个等待心脏移植的患者。谁能移植这颗心脏？当然是移植后最有机会活得更好和更久的那个人。”
I'm Jonathan Evans.
我是乔纳森·埃文斯。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，禁止转载，违者必究！)