Coronavirus US live: Donald Trump predicts 'a very, very painful two weeks' – as it happened

Live reporting on the coronavirus in the US continues on Thursday’s blog:

Opinion: Ice agents are still performing raids – and using precious N95 masks to do so

Public health experts and providers Miriam Magaña Lopez and Seth M Holmes write:

On the first day of California’s “shelter-in-place” lockdown, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents raided immigrant communities in Los Angeles. Different from other raids, they carried N95 medical masks to protect themselves from Covid-19. Also different from previous raids, the Ice agents broke state regulations that ordered everyone to stay home except to do “essential” activities necessary to survive (eg buying food or medicine).

The protective masks Ice agents carried to raid communities in LA are the same personal protective equipment that made headlines in the last week due to extreme shortages endangering the lives of healthcare workers. These frontline health professionals care for patients without this basic protective equipment, forced to risk not only their own health but also the capacity of our health system in this critical pandemic. In fact, the surgeon general issued a statement requesting that all N95 masks be saved for doctors, nurses and other frontline health workers. In a time with severe shortages and orders to “shelter in place”, the federal government chose to prioritize masks for Ice agents instead of necessary health personnel and, ultimately, chose raids over the health of our country.

Fact check: “Nobody knew”

“Nobody knew how contagious this was,” Trump said. “I don’t think any doctor new it at the time. People have not seen anything like this.”

In fact, as the disease spread through China, public health experts were warning for weeks that the coronavirus threat could grow into a pandemic.

Moreover, epidemiologists have been predicting this sort of pandemic for years. The US intelligence community, in its January 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment, wrote: “We assess that the United States and the world will remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large-scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, strain international resources, and increase calls on the United States for support.”

Once again, Trump misrepresented his administration’s travel restrictions, saying that he “stopped” travel from Italy before issuing broader restrictions on travel from Europe. Through the administration issued travel advisories for parts of Italy, he never banned travel from Italy.

The briefing has now reached the two hour mark.

“This is really easy to be negative about. But I want to give people hope, too,” Trump said, abandoning the quiet, somber tone he used earlier in the briefing.

“I’m not about bad news,” Trump said. “I want to give people hope. I want to give people the feeling that we all have a chance.”

As he has during previous briefings, the president then became combative, attacking reporters and dismissing what he called “stupid question”.

“I don’t think I would’ve acted any differently. I don’t think I would’ve acted any faster,” Trump said when asked if the impeachment distracted him from the coronavirus crisis.

Senate leader Mitch McConnell, has blamed the impeachment trial for distracting from the crisis. “I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment,” McConnell said in an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”

Fact check: Even more on ventilators

Earlier, Dr. Birx said that the US is better positioned than the UK on ventilators. “They have 8000 ventilators in the UK. If you translate that to the US that would be equivalent to us having 40000 ventilators. We have five times that,” she said.

Indeed, the UK Cabinet Office said that there are 8,000 ventilators currently in the NHS with a further 8,000 already on order from overseas.

The US has nearly five times the population of the UK, so Birx’s idea to multiply 8,000 ventilators by 5 to gauge a comparison makes sense. But it’s unclear how many ventilators the US has. Estimates published in the New England Journal of Medicine guess 60,000 to 160,000 — that’s fewer than Birx’s boast.

“There is a broad range of estimates of the number of ventilators we will need to care for U.S. patients with Covid-19, from several hundred thousand to as many as a million,” wrote public health experts in the NEJM.

Fact check: Travel bans

As evidence that he acted early and effectively, the president touted his piecemeal travel bans and restrictions — which epidemiologists said could have stopped the spread of disease if implemented much earlier than they were — but ultimately did little more than cause chaos and confusion at airports.

“We stopped all of Europe,” Trump boasted. But the restrictions didn’t apply to all of Europe and included restrictions for several types of travelers.

Dr. Fauci said “I believe we acted early,” in response to a question about whether the US could have done more, earlier. But he conceded that earlier action could have helped.

Dr. Birx, as well, evaded the question, asserting that it remains to be seen whether the disease was spreading through the US in February or earlier.

Fact check: Hydroxychloroquine cure

Trump once again touted hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus cure, asserting that it won’t kill people because it has already been used to treat other conditions. But the drug can have serious side effects even when it is used as recommended, to treat malaria, as well as lupus and arthritis.

Moreover, public health experts including his own top infectious diseases adviser, Dr Fauci, have previously warned that there was only “anecdotal evidence” that the drugs could be helpful. My colleague Oliver Milman reported that a French study of 40 coronavirus patients found that half experienced clearing of their airways after being given hydroxychloroquine. Experts have warned that the study is small and lacks sufficient rigor to be classed as evidence of a potential treatment. The French health ministry has warned against the use of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19.

The surge in demand for the unproven hydroxychloroquine also risks shortages of the drug for those who need it most. It is used to help patients manage the chronic autoimmune disease lupus, but some are already complaining the drug is harder to come by. Trump’s pushing of the treatment has reportedly caused stockpiling of hydroxychloroquine.

Fact check: Ventilators, again

The government has almost 10,000 ventilators remaining in the stockpile, Trump said, but “we are holding it back for flexibility,” he said, so they can be distributed strategically.

The strategic reserve of medical supplies is like an oil reserve, Trump added, except more valuable. Asked about reports that governors are caught in bidding wars for the life-saving machines, Trump said: “that shouldn’t be happening.” All they need to do is ask, he said.

But the president has repeatedly dismissed governors’ requests for medical equipment. In an interview with Fox News last week, he said “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”

Even today, he added that though governors could ask, in some cases, “they want to have more than they think they need”.

“It’s not the flu,” Trump said of the coronavirus. “It is vicious.”

The president has repeatedly compared the coronavirus pandemic to the seasonal flu.

Fact check: Late start

Though Trump is seeking to blame states for a delayed response to the coronavirus crisis, the president consistently downplayed the concerns of public health officials who raised early alarms.

In late January, at the Davos conference, Trump said, “It’s going to be just fine.”

In February, after the WHO announced more than 25,000 cases worldwide, Trump said that it “looks like, by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

And earlier this month, Trump tweeted this:

Now, Trump is agreeing that at least 100,000 Americans could die.

Trump, Birx and Fauci have piled on New York.

“All of our major cities modeled like New Yor is what gets us into trouble,” Birx said. “California and Washington state reacted very early to this.”

“For whatever reason, New York got off to a very late start,” Trump added. “And you see what happens when you get off to a late start.”

The president is arguing that he is saving the country from a much worse fate than 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. “100,000 is, is — according to modeling, a very low number.”

“You would have had people dying all over the place,” Trump said, painting a picture of what would have happened if the country had done nothing. “You would have seen people dying in airplanes, you would have seen people dying in hotel lobbies.”

“How many people have even seen anybody die?” he said. “You would have seen death all over.”

Of course, Trump was among those who downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus threat early on. Just last week, he pushed to scale back distancing measures by Easter.

Fact check: Testing

“We are doing more than anybody else in the world, by far” on testing, Trump said. “And they’re very accurate tests.”

In fact, the US has lagged behind many other countries in testing. As of Monday afternoon, the US, with a population of 329 million, had administered at least 944,854, according to the Covid Tracking Project, a group led by Alexis Madrigal, a staff writer for The Atlantic magazine, with more than 100 volunteers that compiles coronavirus testing data from states.

This equates to 287 tests per 100,000 people in the US (with huge variations depending on the county, city and state) compared to 709 per 100,000 in South Korea and 600 per 100,000 in Italy.

About 65,000 coronavirus tests a day are currently being done on Americans — a massive rise from 10 days ago. But there’s huge variation from state to state, and public health experts reckon 150,000 tests are needed every day so that infected patients can be identified quickly, traced and quarantined

To match South Korea’s testing rate, the U.S. would have needed to conduct another 2 million tests. Moreover, some of the initial coronavirus tests sent out to states were seriously flawed – some did not even work. Part of the problem came from the CDC insisting it would manufacture the tests itself.

Moreover, some of the initial coronavirus tests sent out to states were seriously flawed – some did not even work. Part of the problem came from the CDC insisting it would manufacture the tests itself.

Other countries – after their first coronavirus case – swiftly asked private companies to develop their own tests. South Korea, which recorded its first case on the same day as the US, did so within a week

The US only allowed laboratories and hospitals to conduct their own tests on February 29, almost six weeks after the first case was confirmed.

“The federal agency shunned the World Health Organization test guidelines used by other countries and set out to create a more complicated test of its own that could identify a range of similar viruses,” ProPublica reported.

The graphic outlining the predicted number of deaths, with and without mitigation, isn’t presented in a particularly sensitive manner. As a New York Times reporter in the room noted, the slide listed as “goals” up to 240,000 deaths.

That terrifying number is lower than 2.2m deaths that could occur if no distancing or mitigating measures are taken, according to the model presented by Birx.

Fact check: More on ventilators

Trump warned that the “surge is coming and it’s coming pretty strong” and so the federal government is “holding back” 10,000 ventilators. The actual number of ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile is around 16,600, according to reports last week.

This total is barely enough for what New York requires, let alone the rest of the US. A greater problem, perhaps, is the lack of a strong ramp-up in ventilator production for patients in the US.

An investigation by ProPublica found that the federal government signed a $13.8 million contract with a Pennsylvania manufacturer to create a low-cost, portable, easy-to-use ventilator to stockpile for an emergency such as the spread of Covid-19, only for the company to then sell a more expensive version around the world rather than supplement the stockpile.

“We gotta brace ourselves,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The number of cases will continue to go up for in the coming week, he said. “We cannot be discouraged by that because the mitigation is actually working and will work.”

Early mitigation slowing the spread of disease in California and Washington state is “gives us great hope,” said Dr. Deborah Birx.

According to modeling that she presented, which assumes that Americans will abide by strict distancing measures, showed the virus receding about July 1. “There is no magic bullet. No magic vaccine or therapy. Its just behavior” she said.

“We are going to go through a very tough two weeks,” Trump said, striking a more somber tone than he has at previous briefings. “This is going to be a very, very painful two weeks.”

There will be“light at the end of the tunnel,” he added. We are going to see things get better “all of a sudden” like a “burst of light.”

Fact check: US unemployment pre-pandemic

Trump praised the sacrifice made by the American public and businesses before stating that the US has the “greatest economy in the history of our country.” He added that “we had the best unemployment numbers and best employment number we’ve had, by far.”

While the US unemployment rate has dropped to low levels during Trump’s presidency, it’s not at an all-time record. In April last year, the unemployment rate fell to 3.6% - the lowest since 1969. This rate was at or below 4% for the preceding year.

Fact check: 10,000 ventilators

Trump once again touted US stockpile of 10,000 ventilators, which he said the government is “holding back” strategically.

In fact, there are 16,600, according to the Center for Public Integrity. But even that won’t be enough to meet the demand.

But experts say that the government’s secretive stockpile of medicines, vaccines, protective clothing and equipment, stashed in a dozen warehouses across the country, isn’t enough to meet the demand for medical equipment needed to treat coronavirus patients. State governors, including Andrew Cuomo of New York, have asked for tens of thousands of ventilators.

In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, public health experts wrote: “The national strategic reserve of ventilators is small and far from sufficient for the projected gap. No matter which estimate we use, there are not enough ventilators for patients with Covid-19 in the upcoming months.”

Because Europe “took a much different route than we did, a much different route,” in responding to the coronavirus pandemic, “they’re having tremendous problems,” Trump said. As he did during yesterday’s briefing, the president is attempting to paint the US’ delayed and chaotic response to the pandemic as superior to Europe.

Yesterday, Trump implied that the US would soon have such a surplus of scarce and necessary medical equipment that he’d be able to send the excess to Italy, France and Spain.

“There’s a great pride going on right now,” the president said.

He signaled that the Treasury and Small Business Administration have announced further details on the paycheck protection program, which provides $350bn for small businesses to continue making payroll for two months.

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh — blogging from the West Coast.

We’re awaiting the daily coronavirus briefing from Trump and other members of the White House task force responding to the pandemic.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis says the task force hasn’t advised him to issue a statewide closure. “The task force is not recommending this,” he told reporters. “If they do, that’s something that would carry a lot of weight with me.”

But according to the Miami Herald, one of the epidemiologists behind a coronavirus model cited by the White House said he told Florida’s top health official Monday night that a blanket stay-at-home order was urgently necessary.

Though DeSantis, a Republican, has ordered people visiting from New York to self-quarantine and has issued “safer-at-home” mandates for South Florida, he has so far resisted more sweeping actions. The state has reported more 5,000 positive coronavirus cases, with 523 new positive cases on Sunday.

Trump’s daily press conference on the US response to coronavirus was even more of a spectacle yesterday than usual.

The president was accused of using the briefing to promote specific companies, including MyPillow, whose chief executive Mike Lindell has become a regular at Trump rallies.

The Guardian’s David Smith reported yesterday:

Trump praised companies for doing their ‘patriotic duty’ by producing or donating medical equipment to meet America’s most urgent needs. ‘What they’re doing is incredible,’ he said. ‘These are great companies.’

He went on to invite Lindell, Darius Adamczyk of Honeywell, Debra Waller of Jockey International, David Taylor of Procter & Gamble and Greg Hayes of United Technologies to make short speeches. He introduced Lindell as a ‘friend’ and riffed: ‘Boy, do you sell those pillows, it’s unbelievable what you do.’

Trump’s daily press conference on the coronavirus response will be slightly delayed.

The event, which was scheduled to start in about 25 minutes at 5 pm ET, will now start at 5:15.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer criticized majority leader Mitch McConnell for suggesting impeachment distracted lawmakers from the coronavirus response.

The New York Democrat noted he said in late January, as Trump’s impeachment trial was going on, that coronavirus should be declared a public health emergency.

McConnell said in a radio interview earlier today that the impeachment trial “diverted the attention of the government” from responding earlier to the outbreak of the virus.

But even after the impeachment trial ended in early February, Trump spent weeks downplaying the virus, incorrectly predicting that it would miraculously “disappear” before causing major effects in the US.

The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports:

A separate program California launched this week, which calls to duty recently retired health care professionals and those on the verge of completing degrees, is off to a roaring start. About 25,000 people met the call and filled out applications, governor Gavin Newsom said.

Also new: Health officials in seven Bay Area jurisdictions have extended a previous stay-at-home order, set to expire 7 April, to 3 May.

The new order says that most construction is to cease — both on residential and commercial projects. Previous guidance had a grey area as it related to construction in that residential projects were allowed to continue work but not commercial projects.

Some updates the governor provided, by the numbers:

• 10,000: The number of ventilators needed in California.
• 4,252: The number of ventilators the state has on hand.
• 1.6 million: The number of people who have filed for unemployment in California since March 13.
• 100 million-plus: The number of masks needed for healthcare workers and others.
• 6,932: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in California, a 17% increase from yesterday.
• 150: The number of deaths from coronavirus across the state.
• 1,617: The number of people hospitalized, a 13% increase from yesterday.
• 657: Patients admitted to ICUs, a 10% increase from yesterday.

The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports:

California has created a hotline for seniors who are isolated in their homes and may need help with daily needs as well as a live person to speak with.

California governor Gavin Newsom today announced that the state is partnering with groups like AARP, the Alzheimer’s Association and American Lung Association to set up the hotline. California will also join 2-1-1, which connects people to local resources.

The hotline number is: (833) 544-2374.

“We’re now reconstituting all of those programs and building capacity and partnership to significantly increase our connectivity to our seniors to check not just for wellness checks related to food and medicine but the deep anxiety people are feeling being isolated at home and the loneliness people are feeling at home not connected to the outside world, anxious about their life and their loved ones’ lives,” Newsom said.

Roughly 5.3 million Californians are over 65 and an estimated one million live alone. “Check in on your neighbors, make those phone calls,” Newsom said. “We’re all bound together by a big web of mutuality.”

Trump has appeared reluctant to use the powers of the Defense Production Act even though his administration has invoked it many times before.

The New York Times reports:

A Korean War-era law called the Defense Production Act has been invoked hundreds of thousands of times by President Trump and his administration to ensure the procurement of vital equipment, according to reports submitted to Congress and interviews with former government officials.

Yet as governors and members of Congress plead with the president to use the law to force the production of ventilators and other medical equipment to combat the coronavirus pandemic, he has for weeks treated it like a ‘break the glass’ last resort, to be invoked only when all else fails.

Trump said Friday he would use the law to press General Motors to produce ventilators, although the company has said it is already moving quickly to make the breathing machines.

But a number of Democrats, including Joe Biden and House speaker Nancy Pelosi, have demanded that Trump use the full force of the law to speed up the production of medical equipment.

Joe Biden also dodged a question about whether Trump’s delayed response to coronavirus has cost American lives, as House speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed.

“President Trump is not responsible for the coronavirus,” Biden said in response to a question from CNN host Brooke Baldwin. “But he is responsible for not using all of the power at his disposal to deal with this virus.”

Biden has specifically called on Trump to use the powers of the Defense Production Act to speed up production of medical equipment.

California has nearly 7,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, governor Gavin Newsom said in a virtual press briefing.

Newsom also noted that 25,000 retired and student medical professionals have volunteered to help with the coronavirus crisis.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over a pro forma session in the House, which is expected to be out of session until April 20.

The resignation of congressman Mark Meadows, who is leaving the House to become Trump’s chief of staff, was read on the floor. Meadows’ resignation is effective at 5 pm today.

Pelosi said, “The whole number of the House is 429.”

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he has closed 10 playgrounds across the city after residents failed to adhere to social distancing guidelines there.

The mayor also issued a plea to people who may have ventilators in their office, such as plastic surgeons or veterinarians, to donate them to the coronavirus response effort.

“If you’ve got a vent in your office, in your operating room, we need it now,” de Blasio said. “It shouldn’t be sitting there doing nothing.”

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has said the state needs thousands more ventilators to prepare for the expected surge in coronavirus cases.

The Guardian’s Erin McCormick and Patrick Greenfield report:

Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Martinique and Barbados have refused to accept the medical evacuation of two critically ill passengers from a stranded coronavirus-stricken cruise ship, according to the vessel’s owner.

Four people have died, nine people have tested positive for covid-19 and dozens of people are ill with flu-like symptoms on the Zaandam and the Rotterdam, which are traveling towards Florida to attempt to dock.

William Burke, chief maritime officer for the boats’ owners Carnival Corporation, made the disclosure about critically ill passengers while answering questions about plans to enter Port Everglades, which have so far not been approved.

Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief told that Guardian that while there may be opponents to the plan to allow the ships to dock, she thinks the plan proposed by Carnival is ultimately a workable approach.

“This is Carnival using their resources to get people home. The county commissioners can’t turn a ship away. They can say what they want. But it’s ultimately up to the county administrator and the Unified Command whether to let the ship come in.”

She said most of the calls she is getting from the public are from those who want the county to rescue the passengers.

“Most people want us to give humanitarian aid, which is something American is known for. I don’t know how, if there are Americans aboard, we would turn these people away.”

Hospitals are threatening to fire staffers who publicly share concerns about working conditions amid the pandemic.

Bloomberg News reports:

Ming Lin, an emergency room physician in Washington state, said he was told Friday he was out of a job because he’d given an interview to a newspaper about a Facebook post detailing what he believed to be inadequate protective equipment and testing. In Chicago, a nurse was fired after emailing colleagues that she wanted to wear a more protective mask while on duty. In New York, the NYU Langone Health system has warned employees they could be terminated if they talk to the media without authorization.

‘Hospitals are muzzling nurses and other health-care workers in an attempt to preserve their image,’ said Ruth Schubert, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Nurses Association. ‘It is outrageous.’

Many hospitals have said they are running dangerously low on personal protective equipment, potentially exposing medical professionals to coronavirus as they treat patients.

In Italy, which has seen the most deaths in the pandemic, more than 60 doctors have already died because of the virus.

This graph of US coronavirus cases is being widely shared, as the country’s number of cases continues to climb.

The graph indicates the US has not yet flattened the curve of coronavirus cases, underscoring the need to continue practicing social distancing in the weeks to come.

There is already some early evidence that such measures have helped mitigate the spread of the virus in San Francisco, where officials first told residents to stay home two weeks ago.

The captain of a Navy aircraft carrier sent an urgent memo asking for help to contain an outbreak on the ship.

Captain Brett Crozier, commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, asked that the ship be allowed to dock to let the 5,000 sailors on board quarantine.

“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die,” Crozier wrote yesterday to Navy leaders, according to the Wall Street Journal. “If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset—our sailors.”

Crozier warned the ship, which has already seen at least 70 cases of coronavirus, did not allow for the social distancing recommended by the CDC.

“With the exceptions of a handful of senior officer staterooms, none of the berthing onboard a warship is appropriate for quarantine or isolation,” Crozier wrote.

In response, the Navy said it is “moving quickly to take all necessary measures to ensure the health and safety of the crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt.”

A group of New York doctors shared a video urging young people to take social distancing guidelines seriously.

The doctors warned that young people can get seriously ill from coronavirus and said those with mild symptoms should immediately self-isolate.

The doctors said their hospital is running out of medication, equipment and oxygen, emphasizing it was a dire necessity for Americans to help mitigate the spread of the virus.

Watch the video here:

The sale of Trump’s Washington hotel has been put on hold as the industry struggles amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Washington Post reports:

Trump’s firm, which he still owns, has had to press pause on the proposed sale of its D.C. hotel lease due to the market’s collapse as potential buyers wait for banks and investors to return normal operations. ...

Trump’s company, now run by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, announced the planned sale in October and set a January deadline for initial bids. It is unclear how many companies are pursuing the lease, which Trump signed with the federal government before his election, although BET co-founder Sheila Johnson was among the bidders.

The Trump Organization has already had to close several properties and lay off hundreds of workers in the face of the pandemic, and the $2 trillion stimulus bill blocks businesses owned by the president from receiving loans or investments from the treasury department.

Dr Anthony Fauci said the White House is examining whether to recommend more widespread usage of face masks to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.

Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said medical professionals should still have priority in receiving face masks, considering they are on the front lines against the virus.

Officials previously warned Americans against hoarding masks as hospitals said they were running dangerously low on personal protective equipment.

But Fauci said there could potentially be some benefit to more widespread usage of the masks if the country can get a sufficient supply of them.

“Once we get in a situation where we have enough masks, I believe there will be some very serious consideration about more broadening this recommendation of using masks,” Fauci told CNN earlier today. “We’re not there yet, but I think we’re close to coming to some determination.”

At his press conference that ended moments ago, New York governor Andrew Cuomo referred to coronavirus as “the great equalizer,” citing his brother’s recent diagnosis.

Cuomo noted his brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, was considered an essential worker, so he was going outside more than most New Yorkers and was exposed to the virus.

The governor argued Cuomo’s diagnosis underscored the need for New Yorkers to practice social distancing as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo closed his press conference by criticizing Congress’ response to the coronavirus crisis.

Cuomo said the three bills passed by Congress do not provide sufficient funding to New York, which has seen the most coronavirus cases in the country.

“God will determine who is to blame,” Cuomo told a reporter who asked whether he blamed Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a New York senator, for the funding issue. “You and I just deal with the reality.”

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he is dissatisfied with how the state’s unemployment system is working now as many companies lay off employees.

“It is not working as smoothly as I’d like to see it,” Cuomo said. “It’s compunding people’s stress.”

Cuomo said he was sorry to unemployed residents who are confused on how to obtain benefits. “I apologize for the pain,” Cuomo said. “It must be infuriating to deal with.”

The governor noted the unemployment claims website is “so deluged” because hundreds of thousands of people are trying to access it, so it has repeatedly crashed.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo was asked how the state will determine who receives ventilators if there is a shortage.

“I don’t even want to think about that consequence,” the governor replied.

But Cuomo has said the state needs thousands more ventilators for the peak of the coronavirus crisis.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the chaos created by a bidding war on ventilators was easily predictable and should have been avoided.

“Did you really have to learn that 50 states shouldn’t compete against 50 states, and then FEMA shouldn’t come in late and compete with 50 states?” Cuomo said.

“It’s not like you had to go to the Harvard Kennedy school to learn this,” the governor joked.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the state has ordered 17,000 ventilators from China at a price of roughly $25,000 each.

Cuomo said the state’s financial commitment to the ventilators underscores how badly they are needed to mitigate the coronavirus death toll.

“The last thing I want to do is buy a single ventilator I don’t need,” Cuomo said, adding that the state is “broke.”

But Cuomo said the ventilators have been “very slow in coming out” due to the “tremendous demand” for the equipment right now.

The governor said he has a “firm expectation” on receiving 2500 ventilators in the next two weeks.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the state will hit the peak of its coronavirus crisis in seven to 21 days.

“This does me no good,” Cuomo said of the estimate. “The range is too broad.”

Cuomo also noted that there are ranges in the estimates of how many ventilators and hospital beds will be nedded once the number of coronavirus cases hits its highest point.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said there was a lesson to be learned from his brother’s coronavirus diagnosis.

Cuomo noted his brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, was considered an essential worker. CNN said the host was at its New York offices as recently as last Friday.

The governor said he told his brother two weeks ago that their elderly mother could not go over to his home out of concern of spreading the virus.

Cuomo reflected on how his mother could have been exposed if those visits had not abruptly ended. “This virus is that insidious,” Cuomo said.

News of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s positive coronavirus test broke as his brother Andrew, the governor of New York, was beginning his daily press conference in Albany.

Andrew is discussing Chris now, but here’s what happened when the two brothers spoke to each other in prime time on Monday night.

Andrew made headlines by repeatedly rebuffing Chris’s questions about whether he will run for president and also determinedly refused to engage with questions about Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis.

But perhaps the most heartwarming section of the interview, mindful of the older Cuomo’s advice that New Yorkers “seek joy” during the coronavirus shutdown, came at the end, when Cuomo the younger discussed his keeping of the secret of their mother’s pasta sauce. Here’s some clips from the transcript.

Chris Cuomo: …Last night I was doing what I do for my family which is make my mother’s sauce. She taught me how to make the sauce, which is something that is very coveted. And she said I can only teach he, not she, he who will carry it on best.

“…I had a picture of her behind me as I always do when I’m cooking in the kitchen, a picture of my mother to remember our bond and how I care for her that she taught me how to make the sauce. She didn’t teach anybody else.

“And she called me and said, is Andrew there? I said, ‘No, mom, I’m all alone here out on the island with my family.’ And she said, ‘Where is he?’ And I said, ‘He’s up in Albany in the house with the big gates and the attack dog. And she said, ‘Oh, that’s too bad.’ And I said, ‘It’s OK, mom. I love him and I’ll make sauce for him, too.’ And she started to cry, and then I said goodbye. That’s what happened.

Governor Cuomo: You’ve always been good at manipulation. You’ve always been the meatball of the family. Look, some of us have to work, right? I don’t have the luxury of working one hour a day. God bless you. I’m happy for you.”

After some more back and forth, Chris Cuomo said: “Stay safe. I’ll talk to you soon. I’ll send you some sauce.”

Governor Cuomo: Love you, brother.

Chris Cuomo: Mom’s secret sauce.

Governor Cuomo: Thanks, thanks. I know. Meatball.

Chris Cuomo: I heard it. It’s a term of endearment in Italian circles, to be the meatball. Please hang up on him now. Thank you very much. He has a lot of work to do.”

Here’s the full video:

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said “nobody knows” when the coronavirus crisis may end, and New Yorkers should prepare accordingly.

“I can say this, it’s not going to be soon,” Cuomo said of when the crisis may start to dissipate. “So calibrate yourself and your expectations, so you are not disappointed every morning when you wake up.”

Cuomo noted the state may hit its peak number of cases anytime in the next month or so.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the state is trying to prepare for when it hits its peak number of coronavirus cases, which will likely come in the next few weeks.

“We’ve been behind this virus from day one,” Cuomo said, arguing officials and hospitals need to prepare for the likely surge in cases.

The governor noted the state is creating a stockpile of medical equipment to prepare for the apex of the crisis. “We are gathering equipment we don’t need today,” Cuomo said. “Because today is not the apex of the battle.”

New York City has seen 932 deaths from coronavirus, marking an increase of 142 since yesterday morning, according to the latest statistics.

The city has also seen more than 40,000 cases, the majority of them being people under the age of 50.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will hold a press briefing in about 30 minutes.

The governor will likely be asked about the rising coronavirus death toll in New York City, which has reported more than 900 fatalities connected to the virus.

Congressman Max Rose announced he would deploy to the National Guard to help with coronavirus response efforts.

Rose, a captain in the Army National Guard, will deploy tomorrow and serve as an operations officer at Staten Island facilities in the coming weeks, his office said in a statement.

“Over the past month I have seen acts of incredible bravery and sacrifice by our first responders, nurses, doctors, and essential workers who never thought they’d be on the frontlines of a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic,” Rose, a freshman Democrat, said in the statement.

“My activation and deployment is nothing compared to what our city, state, and country has asked of all them. And it’s certainly nothing compared to the other men and women serving in uniform both here at home and overseas. I am just trying to do my duty and my small part.”

Republican senator Rick Scott called for most testing to be done in his home state of Florida, where governor Ron DeSantis has not yet issued a statewide “stay at home” order.

DeSantis has faced some criticism over his response to the virus after footage circulated of spring breakers visiting Florida beaches earlier this month.

But Scott resisted criticism of DeSantis in a CNBC interview this morning. “I’m not going to second guess somebody in the middle of a crisis,” Scott said.

But the freshman senator added: “Here’s where I think Florida needs to step up: we have to get more testing done.”

House majority leader Steny Hoyer urged members to keep their schedules “very flexible” in the weeks and months to come.

Hoyer said yesterday that the House was not expected to reconvene until 20 April , but the Democratic leader warned the chamber will later have to make up for time lost because of the pandemic.

“I would urge you to keep your schedules very flexible,” Hoyer wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter to House members.

“In order to make up for time that has been lost, the House may meet during weeks that had previously been scheduled as District Work Periods, and four-day weeks may become five-day weeks.”

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine complained about the lack of “widespread testing” in a CNN interview this morning, echoing reported complaints from other governors.

DeWine, who has been widely praised for his aggressive response to the virus, said the state would see its peak number of cases sometime between mid-April and mid-May, but it is difficult to know for sure because of the current level of testing.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock reportedly complained to Trump yesterday that his state has struggled to identify and track coronavirus patients because of inadequate testing.

But DeWine said he believed the social distancing measures being practiced across the state are already having an effect and urged residents to continue respecting the guidelines.

“My message to my fellow Ohioans is that we can’t let up now,” DeWine said. “We’ve got to really, really stay at this.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats’ fourth coronavirus bill would help to serve state and local leaders grappling with the pandemic.

On a call yesterday with reporters, Pelosi said the legislation would include proposals on clean water, infrastructure and rural broadband.

However, in a separate interview this morning, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell downplayed the possibility of passing such legislation.

“I’m not going to allow this to be an opportunity for the Democrats to achieve unrelated policy items they wouldn’t otherwise be able to pass,” McConnell said.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi also commented on her tense relationship with the president amid the coronavirus pandemic. (The pair have not spoken in five months.)

“If it’s necessary, I’m sure we will speak,” Pelosi told MSNBC. But she added that she didn’t know what she would learn from speaking to Trump.

The House speaker said she mostly communicates with Trump through television interviews. “That is what he hears is what people say publicly – much more than in a call,” Pelosi said.

Hello and welcome to our live blog coverage of the coronavirus emergency. New York governor Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday night that the peak number of concurrent cases in the state, still the country’s foremost hotspot, was expected to arrive in the coming six to 21 days.

As of Tuesday morning there were more than 164,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the United States and 3,161 had died, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. In New York state there were 67,384 confirmed cases and 1,342 deaths. Neighboring New Jersey had the second-most cases with 16,636 cases and 198 deaths.

In an animated conversation with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, his younger brother, Andrew Cuomo, the governor, whose handling of the crisis has won strong approval, denied that he would respond to calls from some quarters that he run for president.

Cuomo also had nice words for Donald Trump, who has demanded praise from governors as a condition of their states receiving federal aid. Cuomo’s praise in this case found its mark, with Fox News picking up the comment and Trump tweeting about it.

Here’s a bit of the interview: