AKIPRESS.COM - 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, The Guardian reports.

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”.

Top administration officials issued a coordinated message at the weekend that the US was facing difficult weeks ahead.

“This is probably going to be a very bad week,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s foremost infectious diseases expert, said.

In New York City, the chair of the city council’s health committee warned the morgues were almost full.

“Soon we’ll start ‘temporary interment’,” the councilman, Mark Levine, tweeted. “This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line. It will be done in a dignified, orderly – and temporary – manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take.”

Levine later said the plan had not yet been put into motion. Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters: “We will have the capacity for temporary burials – that’s all I’m going to say.

“I’m not going into details. I don’t think it’s a great thing to be talking about.”