Americans are now advised to wear cloth masks in public, after the US reported more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the highest single day death toll in the world.
The Trump administration is formalising new guidance which to urge Americans to wear non-medical masks, made of T-shirts or scarves over their mouths and noses while outdoors – although the president said it would not be mandatory.
He also said he won't be doing it.
At his White House press briefing on Friday, he said: "It's only a recommendation ... I'm choosing not to do it."
Officials estimate between 100,000 to 240,000 people could be killed in the US even if Americans follow strict lock-down orders, while the White House has extend "social distancing" guidelines through the end of April. Dr Anthony Fauci, the administration's top health official on the coronavirus response, said he "doesn't understand" why every state hasn't issued stay-at-home orders, creating patchwork quarantine efforts across the country.
His frustration contradicts instruction from White House officials who have praised stringent measures in hard-hit states and cities but insist on respecting "statehood" in the face of the crisis.
The White House also announced that uninsured Americans — including potentially millions of people who lost their health insurance from their employer after mass layoffs in the last several weeks and days ahead — will not be billed for coronavirus-related healthcare, though details have not been announced.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said hospitals and health providers can bill the federal government, and uninsured people "will not be allowed" to foot the bill.
The president and Jared Kushner also are under fire for claiming that the national stockpile of critically needed medical supplies aren't necessarily meant for states to use, going so far as to change the federal website's language. Lawmakers pointed out that editing the website does not change the law.
Meanwhile, the US Navy has relieved the captain of an aircraft carrier on which 100 of the crew have been contracted the coronavirus after he raised the alarm.
Captain Brett Crozier, who commands the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its crew of 5,000, had sent a letter to the navy pleading for help with the outbreak board the ship, which was forced to dock in Guam last week.
The death toll in the States increased by more than 1,000 on Thursday, making it the biggest single day death toll in the world.
The US Navy has relieved the captain of an aircraft carrier on which 100 of the crew have contracted coronavirus, Oliver O'Connell reports.
Captain Brett Crozier, who commands the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its crew of 5,000, was relieved of his command on Thursday after his superiors lost confidence in his ability to lead, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this week Captain Crozier sent a letter to the Navy pleading for help with the outbreak of coronavirus aboard the ship, which was forced to dock in Guam last week.
Donald Trump has said the United States is on track to "soon" have tens of thousands of new ventilators to treat coronavirus victims, John Bennett reports.
However the president was vague on the exact timing, stating that the US has “over 100,000 ventilators being built right now or soon to be started”.
Mr Trump has pushed companies like GE and others to begin making the breathing devices, saying he has stopped short of using the Defence Production Act to compel them to do so.
Donald Trump slammed Minnesota-based 3M Company in a tweet late after announcing he was invoking the Defence Production Act to get the company to produce face masks.
"We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. 'P Act' all the way,” he wrote on Twitter late on Thursday, adding: “Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing - will have a big price to pay!"
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said at the briefing: "We've had some issues making sure all of the production that 3M does around the world, enough of it is coming back here to the right places."
Medical workers immediately began off-loading 13 severely ill passengers and one crew member as the Holland America Line cruise ship MS Zaandam and its twin, MS Rotterdam, arrived at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday afternoon.
It brought an end to a nearly three-week ordeal which saw four passengers die on MS Zaandam as numerous Latin American ports along the vessel’s route refused it entry.
In total, about 100 passengers and dozens of crew members reported flu-like symptoms.
Donald Trump intervened on Tuesday to urge Florida officials to accept the stricken cruise ship after governor Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican, declared the Zaandam unwelcome, saying he did not want its sick passengers "dumped" in his state.
Donald Trump has announced Americans will soon be encouraged to wear makeshift face masks in public to stop the spread of coronavirus, Gino Spocchia reports.
The decision comes after top health officials reconsidered current guidelines on public safety advice. Americans were previously told that face coverings or masks were unnecessary for healthy individuals.
At a White House coronavirus briefing on Thursday, the president told reporters that “a recommendation is coming out,” but “I don’t think it will be mandatory. If people want to wear them, they can.”
Donald Trump is due to meet with oil company executives at the White House today to discuss an historic oil-price slump threatening their businesses.
The administration may offer ways to help the industry weather the crisis, including waiving royalty payments drillers must pay for oil produced on federal lands, or imposing an import tariff on foreign crude oil, sources told Reuters.
The president is also likely to highlight his efforts to push Moscow and Riyadh to end their price war and tighten the taps to bring prices back up - the main hope for an ailing US drilling industry that supported his presidential campaign.
Companies expected to participate in today’s meeting include Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp, Occidental Petroleum Corp and Continental Resources.
Oil refiners and small producers will also be represented, either there or in subsequent meetings.
The US Embassy in Japan has warned any American citizens wanting to return to the US to do so immediately or risk remaining abroad for an “indefinite period”.
The embassy has today sounded the alarm about the surge in coronavirus cases in Japan, singling out the country’s lack of widespread testing and the potential strain on its healthcare system.
In a “health alert” posted on its website, it stated: "The Japanese government's decision to not test broadly makes it difficult to accurately assess the COVID-19 prevalence rate.
"While we have confidence in Japan's health care system today, we believe a significant increase in COVID-19 cases makes it difficult to predict how the system will be functioning in the coming weeks.
“If US citizens wish to return to the United States, they should make arrangements to do so now.
“US citizens who live in the United States but are currently in Japan should arrange for immediate return to the United States, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period.”
The warning comes after Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said declaring a national state of coronavirus emergency would send a "strong message" that could help avoid a bigger outbreak.
Record employment growth comes to an end
A record streak of employment growth has come to an end in the US after 701,000 Americans lost their jobs in the first two weeks of March – before coronavirus lockdowns were imposed.
Last month brought an end to an historic 113-month streak of job growth as the unemployment rate shot up to 4.4 per cent from 3.5 per cent, according to department of labour figures.
That number is expected to rise as many more are laid off or furloughed because of businesses and factories closing during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.
The government surveyed businesses and households for the report in mid-March, before a large section of the population was under some form of a lockdown, throwing millions out of work.
The US Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort arrived in New York Harbour this week to serve as a 1,000-bed release valve for the most overstretched health care system in the US..
But several days after its arrival, with the city still struggling to cope with a surging epidemic, the ship’s extraordinary capacity remains mostly unused, with only 20 patients confirmed aboard.
It was intended to provide vital health care capacity by taking on patients diagnosed with conditions other than Covid-19 since some New York hospitals are having to turn such patients away.
And yet the Comfort is not accepting them.
Andrew Naughtie explains:
A 28-year-old doctor in New York has begged Donald Trump to provide vital coronavirus equipment.
Dr Laura Uick said she feels “like a sheep going to slaughter” every time she goes to work – and that she and her colleagues were writing their last will and testament.
New York City, which has become the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in the US, is struggling to source enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to safeguard its doctors and nurses, even as its hospital system faces the worst crisis in its recent history.
Here’s the full story from Andrew Naughtie:
More than 6,000 Americans have now died during the coronavirus pandemic, as cases near 250,000.
The latest Johns Hopkins University data shows 6,058 people who tested positive for the disease have died.
Thursday’s recorded death toll comes as the number of confirmed deaths worldwide nears 53,000, with more than 1,016,000 confirmed cases.
Ventilators delivered to the US by Russia to help treat coronavirus patients were manufactured by a Russian company that is under US sanctions, according to Russia's RBC business daily.
A Russian military plane carrying the ventilators landed in New York on Wednesday after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone.
Russian state television footage of the plane's unloading showed boxes of "Aventa-M" ventilators, which are produced by the Ural Instrument Engineering Plant in the city of Chelyabinsk, RBC reported.
UPZ is part of a holding company called Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies, which itself is a unit of Russian state conglomerate Rostec.
KRET has been under US sanctions since July 2014, with US firms and nationals barred from doing business with it.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has said Donald Trump’s administration cannot move to reopen the economy until it is satisfied “on the health side”.
Speaking to Bloomberg Television, Mr Kudlow also said he saw no reason why the president’s talks with Saudi Arabia and Russia on oil would not "bear fruit" amid the potential for a new global deal between OPEC and its allies to cut global crude supply.
Asked if US oil companies would be included in any production cuts, the economic adviser said: "We don't dictate oil policies to our oil and gas sectors."
Speaking ahead of Donald Trump's scheduled meeting with oil company executives at the White House later today, Mr Kudlow added: “I think ... oil companies, seeing a decline in price are going to pull back on production. That's just common sense.”
It comes after statistics emerged revealed 701,000 people lost their jobs last month, ending a record 113-month streak of employment growth.
Mr De Blasio, mayor of the city at the epicentre of the US outbreak, appeared on morning television shows on Friday to ask for 1,000 more nurses, 150 doctors and 300 respiratory therapists.
"I think somehow in Washington, there's an assumption there's weeks to prepare," he told MSNBC. "There's not weeks anymore. It is days now."
More than a quarter of the 6,058 US coronavirus deaths tallied by Johns Hopkins University as of Friday morning have been in New York City.
More than 500 die in New York overnight with 100,000 reported cases
New York state has the biggest single-day increase of death toll with 592 people dying from the coronavirus yesterday, the governor said.
Governor Andrew Cuomo started his daily press briefing on Friday with the grim news about the death toll increasing in the state.
The state's death toll rose to 2,935 people dying from the novel virus after posting its largest single-day increase.
Danielle Zoellner reports:
After Jared Kushner and Donald Trump claimed that critically needed medical supplies in the US national stockpile are not meant to be delivered to states, despite being a part of the US, the federal website appears to have been edited.
The stockpile is intended to be tapped during a "public health emergency" that is severe enough that "local supplies" are at risk of running out. The stockpile contains enough supplies "to respond to multiple large-scale emergencies simultaneously."
That's according to the previous version of the website. The new language reads:
"The stockpile can be used as a short-term stop gap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available."
With epicentres of infections throughout Brooklyn and Queens neighbourhoods, the coronavirus pandemic has hit lower-income black communities disproportionately hard. New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the relief for those neighbourhoods should be "drafted with a lens of reparations" to address the inequities that made them targets for an outbreak.
Indigenous people also have been especially hard-hit, with more than 300 infections and seven deaths reported in Native communities, which rely on a strained health system.
