We are closing this blog now, after another dramatic, alarming and at times confusing day in a country shut down by the coronavirus outbreak.
With some reports putting the US death toll above 2,000, here’s our nightlead, by Richard Luscombe and Victoria Bekiempis:
Here, meanwhile, is Tom McCarthy and Ed Pilkington’s coruscating look at how Donald Trump failed his greatest test – preparing for Covid-19:
And Sam Levin, from Los Angeles:
And Oliver Milman itemising some of Trump’s most misleading claims about the coronavirus outbreak:
And finally, our updating map of coronavirus cases in the US:
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest events:
- Trump and Cuomo clash as president weighs New York quarantine. The US president floated the idea of an “enforceable quarantine” of parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, an idea which New York’s governor would later in the afternoon brand “preposterous” and a recipe for “chaos and mayhem”.
- Rhode Island governor issues ‘stay-at-home’ order amid pandemic. One day after announcing her state’s first two deaths from the coronavirus, Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo has issued an order mandating that residents stay at home.
- ER doctor who criticized lack of protective gear says he was fired. An emergency room doctor who spoke out about the lack of coronavirus safety protections in place at his workplace in Bellingham, Washington, about 90 miles north of Seattle, said he was fired on Friday.
- Former Republican senator Tom Coburn dies. The Republican senator from Oklahoma has died at 72. A doctor who resigned his Senate seat following his cancer diagnosis, Coburn pushed for a constitutional convention and advocated for a range of conservative fiscal causes. “This decision isn’t about my health, my prognosis or even my hopes and desires,” he said then.
- President attacks ‘lamestream media’ as coronavirus cases rise. Trump started his Saturday tweeting complaints about “the Lamestream media”. Various stories have got the president’s goat, including one which said he has consulted New York Yankees star, drugs cheat and partner of Jennifer Lopez Alex Rodriguez about how to tackle the crisis.
Cuomo also says he would sue the state of Rhode Island if they don’t roll back their “reactionary and illegal policy” to stop cars with New York license places to ensure passengers are self-quartantining, though he remains confident they can work it out “amicably”.
“No state should be using police to limit interstate travel,” Cuomo said.
Earlier today, Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo issued an executive order mandating that residents stay at home, banning gatherings of more than five people, shuttering all non-essential businesses for two weeks and requiring that all people entering into the state for a nonwork-related purpose self-quarantine for 14 days.
Andrew Cuomo dismisses Trump's 'preposterous' New York quarantine idea
New York governor Andrew Cuomo says Trump’s proposal of an enforceable quarantine for parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut is a “preposterous” idea and counter-productive toward the president’s goals of restarting the economy.
“It would be chaos and mayhem,” Cuomo said on CNN. “If you start walling off areas all across the country, it would just be totally bizarre, counterproductive, anti-American, antisocial.”
He added:
That’s not a quarantine. That would be a lockdown. If you said that we are geographically confining people, that would be a lockdown. Then we would be Wuhan, China. And that wouldn’t make any sense.
“This is a time when the president says he’s trying to restart the economy. New York is the financial sector. You geographically restrict a state, you would paralyze the financial sector. You think the Dow Jones has gone down [now], it would drop like a stone. I don’t even believe it’s legal [due to the] interstate commerce clause.
“I think it would be exactly the opposite of everything the president is talking about. How would you ever operationally stop goods from coming to New York and New Jersey and Connecticut?”
Cuomo says he doubts Trump was even serious about the idea, saying the president didn’t mention it even in passing when they spoke on the phone this morning.
If the president was considering this, I guarantee you he would have called me. We talk about relatively trivial matters when it comes to dealing with this situation. This, this is a civil war kind of discussion.”
Here’s our report on Trump’s remark which is now of course subject to being rewritten…
Updated
The Illinois department of health has announced the first known infant death from Covid-19 in the state.
Illinois governor JB Pritzker said an investigation is under way to determine the cause of death and whether the child, who was younger than one year, had other health issues.
“There has never before been a death associated with COVID-19 in an infant,” said Dr Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois department of public health. “A full investigation is under way to determine the cause of death. We must do everything we can to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. If not to protect ourselves, but to protect those around us.”
According to the AP, the infection rate among children of Covid-19 is extremely rare:
The risk of death and severe illness from Covid-19 is greater for older adults and people with other health problems. In most cases, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitalization.
Children have made up a small fraction of coronavirus cases worldwide. A letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Chinese researchers earlier this month reported the death of a 10-month-old with Covid-19. The infant had a bowel blockage and organ failure, and died four weeks after being hospitalized.
Separate research published in the journal Pediatrics traced 2,100 infected children in China and noted one death, a 14-year old. The study found less than 6% of children were seriously ill.
The Associated Press reports that leaders of a number of South Carolina cities are defying the opposition of the state’s governor to stay-at-home orders:
Leaders of several South Carolina cities say they are defying Gov. Henry McMaster’s opposition to stay-at-home orders and Attorney General Alan Wilson’s opinion that only McMaster can issue such measures.
In Folly Beach, where town officials had removed their checkpoint and had allowed vacation rentals to resume, the city council unanimously voted to re-establish the checkpoint and ban any new short-term rentals beginning Sunday.
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin says on Twitter that his city’s stay-at-home order would take effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday as scheduled. He says Wilson’s Friday opinion is incorrect on a constitutional and statutory basis.
McMaster issued a new executive order on Friday mandating that anyone entering South Carolina from New York and other known coronavirus hotspots – New Jersey, Connecticut and New Orleans – must quarantine themselves for 14 days, but the Republican governor reiterated his stance that he sees no reason for residents to remain at home or shelter-in-place.
“We hope that our visitors will be as responsible as the people of South Carolina have been in following the recommendations and requirements,” McMaster said at a Friday afternoon news conference. ”This is a requirement that has the force of law.”
There were 539 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths on Friday at the time of McMaster’s order.
One day after announcing her state’s first two deaths from the coronavirus, Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo has issued an order mandating that residents stay at home.
Raimondo said the directive will extend through 13 April and will ban gatherings of more than five people, shutter all non-essential businesses for two weeks and mandate that all people entering into the state for a nonwork-related purpose self-quarantine for 14 days.
“Today, I’m issuing a stay at home order that will be in place until April 13. This means unless you’re getting food, medicine, gas or going to work, you need to stay home,” Raimondo said.
Today, I’m issuing a stay at home order that will be in place until April 13. This means unless you’re getting food, medicine, gas or going to work, you need to stay home.
— Gina Raimondo (@GovRaimondo) March 28, 2020
She continued: “You can go outside to get some fresh air, but if you leave your home, keep the time out to a minimum and always keep 6 feet away from others. Starting immediately, all gatherings of more than 5 people are banned. This means everywhere. If you have to go to work, you should be limiting your time there and interacting with as few people as possible.
“In addition, starting immediately, any person coming to RI by any mode of transportation after visiting any other state for a non-work-related purpose must self-quarantine for 14 days. This restriction will not apply to public health, public safety or healthcare workers.
“I want to make a note to commuters. As I’ve already said, if you’re able to work from home, you’re required to do so. If you live in RI and work in another state at a job where you can’t work from home, you can go to work. But when you come home to RI, you must self-quarantine. Starting Monday, all non-essential retail businesses must shut down their stores. I don’t make this decision lightly, but I’m hearing too many reports of crowded stores. So for now, we need you to shop online to support your local retailers.”
The death of one person in their 80s on Friday night and another in their 70s on Saturday in Rhode Island leaves only three US states with zero reported deaths: Hawaii, West Virginia and Wyoming.
More than 200 people have been confirmed to have the virus in the Ocean State, according to the Rhode Island department of health.
A supplemental pool nugget – the best kind of nugget – lands in the Guardian’s nugget-riddled inbox:
New acting chief of staff Mark Meadows, who also deplaned Marine 1, responded to questions about POTUS’ authority to quarantine states: We’re evaluating those options right now.
“Deplaned” – the most irritating bit of official-ese in current use? Probably not. But it would still be nice to be able to tell anyone who uses it… where to get off.
Confusion remains over Trump quarantine remarks
Trump is back at the White House after his visit to Norfolk, Virginia for the departure of the USNS Comfort, the navy hospital ship which is heading for New York. On arrival the president did not answer questions, the pool reports, about his remarks about possible quarantine for the Empire state, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Here’s what was said at Joint Base Andrews earlier, as rendered by the pool reporter:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re looking at it. We’re looking at it, and we’ll be making a decision. A lot of the states that aren’t infected, that don’t have a big problem, they’ve asked me if I’d look at it. So we’re going to look at it. And it will be for a short period of time, if we do it at all.
Q Would it be --
THE PRESIDENT: It’ll be New York.
Q Would you call up the national guard?
THE PRESIDENT: It’ll be New York, parts of Connecticut, and parts of New Jersey.
Q And then, do you close down the subway? Do you close down the bridges, the tunnels?
THE PRESIDENT: No, we won’t do that. We’re talking about leaving New York. Leaving New York. They go to Florida, and a lot of people don’t want that. So we’ll see what happens. We’re going to make a decision.
Q Would you use the military for that, sir? Would you call up the guard?
THE PRESIDENT: We’re not going to need much. The people of New York, they understand it better than anybody, and they’ll be great.
Trump’s remarks have certainly sowed confusion, seeming to blindside New York governor Andrew Cuomo as he gave a press conference in Albany, the state capital.
At Joint Base Andrews, the president said: “I’ll speak to the governor about it later.”
Here’s Victoria Bekiempis with the report on the day so far:
Updated
Florida governor Ron DeSantis says his administration is looking into ways to secure the state border amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying “it’s not fair to the people of Florida” that outsiders have continued to flock to the state.
“I don’t as governor have the ability to shut down flights,” he says during his daily briefing. “But I think it’s an issue when people who are in the hot zone, then leaving the hot zone, to come to different parts of the country.”
DeSantis says they have instituted a 14-day self-quarantine for all visitors from New York airports. All arrivals are met by National Guard and Department of Health personnel to be screened, provided information and given the instruction about self-isolation.
The governor says he’s signed an executive order to establish a checkpoint at the Louisiana state border on Interstate 10 to inspect people entering the state and his administration is looking to the same at the border on I-95, the point of entry for most New Yorkers.
I-10 Alabama-Florida check points are in full effect https://t.co/XGc2aSYQWv pic.twitter.com/Q1RpKJawjq
— Lindsey Girardi (@LindseyGirardi) March 28, 2020
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida has soared to 3,763, more than five times the total of 706 from a week ago. Eight more deaths were reported overnight on Saturday, bringing the overall total to 54.
Updated
The Associated Press reports that New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration is asking for donations of protective equipment:
The donations can be dropped off at Salvation Army drop boxes next to New Orleans Fire Department stations. Items being accepted include masks, gloves, disposable medical gowns, goggles and face shields.
“Like many places around the world, orders of PPE equipment made back in November 2019 have yet to be filled and our supply is running low. Any additional equipment the public can donate at this time will help keep our first responders safe and out on the streets,”
New Orleans Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Collin Arnold said.
The Bayou State has emerged as one of the biggest hotspots of the pandemic with deaths from Covid-19 surging by more than 40% in a single day earlier this week.
There were more than 3,300 confirmed cases as of Saturday morning’s latest update with 549 new cases since Friday. The number of reported deaths is up to 137, up from 119 yesterday.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau says anyone showing symptoms of Covid-19 will not be allowed to board domestic flights or intercity trains. The directive will go into effect on Monday at noon.
“It will be important for operators of airlines and trains to ensure that people who are exhibiting symptoms do not board those trains,” Trudeau said during his daily address. “It will be a Transport Canada rule that will be enforced, but at the same time, we’re telling people stay home if it’s not absolutely essential for you to travel.”
The Public Health Agency of Canada will provide guidance to air operators and rail companies on conducting health checks on passengers boarding flights and trains within Canada or departing the country.
Ohio governor Mike DeWine says Battelle labs has developed technology that would sterilize PPE masks and makes a public appeal for the FDA to give approval for its implementation, adding that it would help in current hotspots like Seattle and New York. The governor says the process could sterilize 80,000 masks per machine daily.
“Please, please approve these. This would boost our capacity to be able to re-use these,” DeWine says at his ongoing news conference at the state house in Columbus. “Please do this. It really is truly a matter of life and death.”
He follows with a second plea to Quest and LabCorps to ramp up their testing capacity, saying the state’s confirmed total coronavirus cases climbed to 1,406, including 344 hospitalizations and 25 deaths, with the apex expected in mid-May.
Updated
Trump is now speaking in front of the USNS Comfort hospital ship, which sets sail Saturday for coronavirus-stricken New York City. The USNS Comfort is due to arrive in Manhattan on Monday.
Trump’s travel to Norfolk, Virginia to bid the USNS Comfort bon voyage stands at odds with public health officials’s advisories against non-essential travel due to coronavirus.
“This great ship behind me is a 70,000-ton message of hope and solidarity to the incredible people of New York, a place I know very well, a place I love,” Trump says. “We are with you all the way, and always will be.”
“You have the unwavering support of the entire nation, the entire government, and the entire American people,” Trump says.
Trump’s message of unity toward New York came in the wake of comments that he was weighing the imposition of a quarantine on this state, as well as New Jersey and parts of Connecticut.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference that Trump hadn’t mentioned a possible quarantine during a call with him earlier.
“We will stop at nothing to protect the health of New Yorkers, and the health of people in our country,” Trump also says in front of the USNS Comfort, insisting that people from the New York metro area self-quarantine if they travel elsewhere.
“I am now considering, and will make a decision very quickly, very shortly, a quarantine because it’s such a hot area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, we’ll be announcing that one way or another fairly soon,” he also said. “This does not apply to people such as truckers from outside the New York area … it won’t affect trade in any way.”
Houston mayor Sylvester Turner says there are 232 positive Covid-19 cases (up from 69 yesterday) in Texas’s biggest metropolis during a briefing at ISD’s Butler Stadium, the city’s first non-private testing site. “The numbers will rise as we continue testing,” he says.
The mayor says the second coronavirus death has been recorded today and three more Houston police officers have tested positive, bringing the total count to seven.
“It is our intent collectively to blunt the progression of this virus,” Turner says. “To slow down the growth, the spread, so that our healthcare delivery system is not overwhelmed. We see what’s happening in New York and in Louisiana and in other places. We’re trying to get ahead of that, to slow the progression, and so we need everyone to really take this situation seriously.”
He adds: “People may just look at the numbers and say the numbers in New York are 25,000 and the state of New York are 45,000, but in the city of Houston the numbers are just 232. And there are 2.3 million people just in the city alone and over five million people in our surrounding region, so that’s not a big deal. Well let me just say, the testing has been limited. We know that there are more cases. And the way I look at it is, I take 232 and I multiply it times 10. Because we just dont know. Don’t get bogged down on the numbers. The more testing we do, the numbers are going to rise.”
.@houmayor Turner provides #COVID19 update at Butler Stadium testing site https://t.co/nJqRfiAo4r
— City of Houston (@HoustonTX) March 28, 2020
Updated
Trump’s proposal of an “enforcable quarantine” for parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut was the big news from his press gaggle before departing on Marine One for Norfolk, where he is scheduled to make remarks and bid bon voyage to the USNS Comfort, which is bound for New York to provide relief to hospitals overwhelmed with responding to the coronavirus.
Moments ago, he made it Twitter official.
I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing “hot spots”, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2020
Some of the toplines from New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefing, which ended moments ago:
- Cuomo said the price of a ventilator has increased from $25,000 when the state began purchasing to about $45,000 today due to the spike in demand
- New York pharmacies have been asked to deliver medications free of charge
- President Trump has approved four additional temporary hospital sites with a total capacity of 4,000 additional beds
- Cuomo says 600 beds will be reserved for coronavirus patients only at three of the purpose-built sites
- The number of New York coronavirus cases increased to 52,318 and deaths to 728 – but hospitalizations dropped from 847 on Friday from 1,154 on Thursday
- Cuomo says he did not discuss a potential “enforceable quarantine” for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in reference to Trump’s comments on the North Lawn only moments earlier
The New York police department saw its third coronavirus death on Saturday, with the passing of a detective, the New York Post reported. The detective, who worked at a precinct station house in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood, was 48. An NYPD administrative aide, and a department janitor, died Thursday due to Covid-19.
On Friday, the police department said Friday that 442 uniformed, and 70 civilian, members tested positive for coronavirus. There were 4,111 uniformed employees who called out sick, comprising 11.4% of NYPD’s uniformed workforce.
Cuomo says he believes the broad distribution of a home test for people, to ensure the state is on the downside of the apex, is the most direct route toward re-opening the economy. “Get those home tests that other countries are starting to use and let people test themselves,” he says. “You could get to a point where you say ... do the test, you’re negative, go to work, period.”
The governor adds that he is against raising taxes to generate more revenue in the state budget: “I don’t know how you raise taxes on people who are out of work and their business has closed because the government needs more funding. I don’t know how you do that now.”
Cuomo says he did not discuss a potential “enforceable quarantine” for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut when he spoke with President Trump earlier today. “I haven’t had those conversations,” he says. “I don’t even know what that means.”
His response to a follow-up question about Trump’s proposed quarantine on the North Lawn: “I don’t even know what that means. I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable. And from a medical point of view I don’t know what you would be accomplishing. But I can tell you I don’t even like the sound of it. Not even understanding what it is, I don’t even like the sound of it.”
He adds: “Mandatory quarantine is a scary concept because it sounds like you’re saying to people: ‘You can’t leave this district.’”
Updated
Cuomo: “I didn’t speak to him about any quarantine”
In New York, Cuomo is now being asked about Trump’s remarks.
He spoke to the president “about the ship coming up and the four sites”, he says, adding: “I didn’t speak to him about any quarantine.”
More from the White House pool about Trump’s remarks during his trip to Norfolk, Virginia about a potential quarantine for New York and neighbouring states:
President Trump touched down at Joint Base Andrews at 12.33pm. He answered questions on the possible quarantine.
“We’re looking at it,” he said on quarantine of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
“No we wouldn’t do that,” when asked about closing the New York City subway.
He said he would talk to Governor Andrew Cuomo later today.
Pool reporter Emily Goodin of the Daily Mail adds: “Please note there is a limited pool of seven traveling with [Trump] so we can employ safe social distancing practices with an empty seat in between each of us on the plane. Additionally, the pool underwent a temperature check … before boarding.”
Cuomo says they can’t have a scenario where states are competing against each other for equipment like ventilators. He suggests the federal government could act as a single purchasing agent and distribute the equipment to the states – or the states could set up a consortium on their own.
“You can’t have a situation where 50 states are competing for the same essential equipment,” he says. “This is not the way to do business. We need a nationwide buying consortium. ... This is something that needs to be worked out, not just for this but for the future.”
Trump floats quarantine for New York
Here’s the White House pool report on what Trump said just now:
We’d like to see NY quarantined because it’s a hotspot – New York, New Jersey, maybe one or two other places, certain parts of Connecticut quarantined. I’m thinking about that right now. We might not have to do it but there’s a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine – short-term two weeks for New York, probably New Jersey and parts of Connecticut.”
The report adds that Trump’s helicopter departed for his trip to Norfolk, Virginia with new chief of staff Mark Meadows also on board.
Cuomo says there are 7,328 people who have been hospitalized with 1,755 people in ICUs, but notes that daily hospitalizations and ICU admissions went down yesterday. The bad news: total deaths in New York are up to 728 from 519 yesterday.
“I wouldn’t put too much stock in any one number. The overall trend is still up,” Cuomo says. “The numbers drive the policy.”
He also says New York’s department of health will begin a new test to see if individuals who were infected with coronavirus developed antibodies to the disease, saying: “It could be a big breakthrough”
While Andrew Cuomo speaks in New York, Donald Trump has been speaking about New York, in Washington:
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is thinking about imposing a quarantine on New York.
— Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) March 28, 2020
According to Idrees Ali of Reuters, the president also said “quarantine would also be considered on New Jersey and Connecticut, would rather not do it but may need it”.
Cuomo hasn’t mentioned possible quarantine of New York yet.
The president is due in Norfolk, Virginia later, for the departure of the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship destined for New York harbour.
Cuomo told his press conference he had spoken to the president today, and Trump had approved four more emergency hospital facilities like the one built at the Javits Center in Manhattan by the Army Corps of Engineers and the national guard, which Cuomo said will open on Monday. The new facilities will be built in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
Cuomo says the federal government has authorized four more field hospitals with a total capacity of 4,000 additional beds. They will be located in the four outer boroughs of Brooklyn (the Cruise Ship Terminal), Queens (the Aqueduct Racetrack), Staten Island (CUNY Staten Island) and the Bronx (the NY Expo Center). He adds there will be a shift to coronavirus-only hospitals to further limit the risk of spread. “This is smart and we’re going to isolate 600 beds for just this treatment,” he says.
Also, the New York state presidential primary scheduled for April 28 has been re-scheduled for 23 June.
Updated
Cuomo says that local hospitals statewide must stop operating as individual institutions and start cooperating to help deal with the anticipated rush. “We need the local health systems to think more holistically,” he says. “You can have a single hospital get overwhelmed within that system. ... The local health systems have to change their orientation where it’s not hospital by hospital, which is the normal culture.”
If downstate hospitals become overwhelmed, those patients may be moved upstate. He adds: “Patients can and should be moved among those local hospitals as the need requires. staff can and should be moved among those local hospitals as the circumstances require.”
Updated
Cuomo is showing off a bag-valve mask, a manual ventilator that helps people breathe. The National Guard is being trained to manually operate them, but it’s anything but optimal. “If we have to turn to this device on any large-scale basis, that is not an acceptable situation,” he says. “Short answer: No, thank you.”
He says there are 4,000 ventilators from the federal government are in the stockpile, meaning a big shortfall must be made up in the 14 to 21 days before the apex. He says the ventilators were $25,000 apiece when the state began buying, but they’re up to $45,000 today due to the demand. And because the state is approximately $15bn in debt, there is “no interest in inflating the number of ventilators than we actually need”.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo starts off his daily briefing saying he only knew it was Saturday because it said so on his alarm clock: “It’s literally like one day blending into the other.”
He points out that China’s first Covid-19 case was 12 weeks ago, New York’s first case was on 1 March, and that city schools closed only 10 days ago.
“Keep it all in perspective in this disorienting time,” he says.
Updated
Law enforcement cracks down – with focus on New Yorkers
From police roadblocks in the Florida Keys, national guard troops knocking on doors in Rhode Island in attempt to “hunt down” New Yorkers, and city leaders nationwide threatening fines for residents found out in the open, the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on personal freedoms was becoming clearer on Saturday, as the death toll continued to rise.
Measures in Rhode Island attracted harsh words from the American Civil Liberties Union, which criticized what it saw as the “blunderbuss approach” of state troopers stopping vehicles from New York and ordering occupants into quarantine.
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, New York state led the nation with more than 46,000 confirmed cases by Saturday morning, compared to Rhode Island’s 203.
“Under the Fourth Amendment, having a New York state license plate simply does not, and cannot, constitute probable cause to allow police to stop a car and interrogate the driver, no matter how laudable the goal of the stop may be,” Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island’s ACLU chapter, said in a statement.
“The ACLU recognizes that strong measures are needed to address the public health crisis but giving the state police the power to stop … cars that are merely traveling through the state is a blunderbuss approach that cannot be justified in light of its substantial impact on civil liberties.”
Gina Raimondo, the Rhode Island governor, implemented the policy in a two-pronged attempt to keep out or contain visitors from New York. Another controversial measure saw the national guard, in the words of the New York Post, “hunting down” New Yorkers by going door to door, beginning on Saturday.
Any found would be ordered into a 14-day quarantine and face fines or jail time for refusing to comply.
“Right now we have a pinpointed risk. That risk is New York City,” Raidondo said in a press conference on Friday.
New Yorkers are personae non gratae in other areas of the country, too, with governors in Florida, Maryland, South Carolina and Texas imposing quarantine restrictions.
They are also not wanted out of doors in their own city, Mayor Bill De Blasio threatening fines of $500 for groups congregating in parks or places of worship.
Meanwhile in the Florida Keys, state law enforcement officials set up roadblocks this weekend at the top of the 125-mile island chain, to stop non-residents getting in.
“As much as we love our visitors, we’d like them to stay away until we can get this thing under control. These are extraordinary times, not just here but globally,” Heather Carruthers, the Monroe county mayor, told reporters.
Donald Trump has approved a major disaster declaration for Michigan following his public back-and-forth with state governor Gretchen Whitmer over the federal government’s response to the pandemic.
More than 3,600 people in Michigan have been confirmed to have Covid-19 with at least 92 dead, mostly from the three counties in the Detroit metro area.
A Huffington Post feature published Friday took a hard look at how America’s poorest big city is uniquely unprepared for what’s ahead.
Detroit’s deep poverty makes it especially vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak and the economic damage it has already inflicted, presenting the city’s public health system with a daunting challenge in slowing the pandemic.
“Where you have generations of concentrated poverty and social determinants of health, when you have pandemics like this, it is going to hit those places harder,” Michigan’s Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun said at a Thursday press conference.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has increased faster here than they did earlier in epicenters like New York City and Seattle. And Wayne County, which encompasses Detroit and nearby suburbs, has the seventh-highest total of confirmed cases in the country, just behind Seattle’s King County. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) last week issued a shelter-in-place order through April 13 as the disease rapidly spread.
In Detroit, a history of poor public policy decisions is behind the systemic poverty that has made folks in the city “so much more susceptible,” said former Detroit Health Department Director Abdul El-Sayed.
“When you talk about any epidemic, it’s not enough to look at the virus or pathogen,” he said. “You also have to look at the host and environment, and in Detroit you have hosts who are, for many reasons outside of their control, systematically less healthy, in general.”
We’re awaiting New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily press briefing from Albany.
As the US has surpassed Italy and China to become the country with the world’s most known cases of coronavirus – 104,713 as of this morning – nearly half of those (46,094) have been recorded in New York. And while the rate of new cases may be slowing, Cuomo said yesterday that he expects the demand for hospitalization to peak in 21 days and the state is creating a stockpile of medical equipment in preparation for that “apex” accordingly.
Updated
Former New York mayor and Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani fired off a tweet on Friday that included misinformation about potential Covid-19 treatment and Michigan governor Gretcher Whitmer – and was subsequently deleted by the social media platform for violating its rules, Mediaite reports.
Giuliani, a key player in an impeachment drama that ended in Trump’s acquittal only last month but can now seem an event from the distant past, tweeted that “hydroxychloroquine has been shown to have a %100 effective rate treating Covid-19 Yet Democrat Gretchen Whitmer is threatening doctors who prescribe it.”
The tweet was comprised of “direct quotes” from Charlie Kirk, an avowed Trump booster, Mediate noted, adding that the page which once held Giuliani’s tweet now states: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules.” Kirk’s tweet was similarly axed.
Giuliani and Kirk’s promotion of hydroxychloroquine is not out of the blue: it’s one of several drugs Trump has touted as possible coronavirus treatments, without support from public health officials.
“I sure as hell think we ought to give it a try,” Trump has said of the common anti-malaria medication. He has also maintained that the drug, taken in combination with popular antibiotic azithromycin, could be “one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine”.
Dr Anthony Fauci, Trump’s top infectious diseases adviser, was one of the public health experts who contradicted such claims, warning there was mere “anecdotal evidence” of efficacy.
In Arizona, a man died after he and his wife took chloroquine phosphate, a chemical used in the cleaning of fish tanks that is also in hydroxychloroquine.
“Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure,” the man’s widow told NBC, advising: “Don’t take anything. Don’t believe anything. Don’t believe anything that the president says and his people … call your doctor.”
Donald Trump has not attacked New York governor Andrew Cuomo much recently, certainly in comparison to Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Jay Inslee of Washington, Democrats leading other states with severe coronavirus problems.
But the New York governor’s brother, Chris Cuomo, has attacked Trump.
On Friday night the CNN host slammed the president’s response to the coronavirus, saying Trump’s personality traits “are literally making us sick”:
If the federal government and the states don’t get it together better, you will see sickness and death in this country like you never have before. And while there are a growing number of mayors and governors in need, there is one persistent problem at the top: Trump. His two defining flaws are on flagrant display. They are literally making us sick.”
Cuomo said Trump’s “ignorance” and “arrogance” – including his statement that “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators” – stood at odds with communities needs in fighting this outbreak.
He doesn’t ‘believe.’ What about this. When you go to war, do you give troops what they need before they come under fire? Yes, right? Same with healthcare workers. They need the PPE [personal protective equipment] now. They need the ventilators in their localities now so when they run out of either, there are more at the ready.
Either he doesn’t get that, which speaks to a degree of ignorance that is more threatening anything Covid-19 can do, or it is just his second defining flaw on display, his arrogance.”
Cuomo also criticized Trump’s comments about governors during his White House coronavirus briefing Friday, when Trump said: “I want them to be appreciative … if they don’t treat you right, I don’t call.”
The younger Cuomo said:
No, you treat them right. Our money, our government, our power. We gave it to you. We don’t serve you. You serve us.”
One would expect Trump to hit back – he regularly criticises the CNN host and has employed “Fredo”, after the ineffective and doomed younger Corleone brother played by John Cazale in the Godfather movies, as an abusive nickname.
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Former Republican senator Tom Coburn dies
The former Republican senator Tom Coburn has died at 72, according to a newspaper in his native Oklahoma.
The Oklahoman published a statement from the senator’s family and said he died after “a long fight with prostate cancer”. Coburn, the paper said:
Served in the Senate from 2005 to 2015 and in the US House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001. After leaving the Senate, he pushed for a constitutional convention and advocated for a range of conservative fiscal causes.
Coburn was a doctor who resigned his Senate seat following his cancer diagnosis.
“This decision isn’t about my health, my prognosis or even my hopes and desires,” he said then.
“As a citizen, I am now convinced that I can best serve my own children and grandchildren by shifting my focus elsewhere.”
One such effort was in support of rightwing efforts to call a Constitutional Convention, in an attempt to dramatically restrict the powers of the US federal government.
“We’re in a battle for the future of our country,” Coburn told the annual convention of the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) in New Orleans in August 2018. “We’re either going to become a socialist, Marxist country like western Europe, or we’re going to be free. As far as me and my family and my guns, I’m going to be free.”
Coburn died as Congress passed and Donald Trump signed the $2.2tn CARES Act, a huge stimulus bill aimed at bailing out US businesses and tax payers during the economic crash caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
According to a friend quoted by the Oklahoman on Saturday, the former senator was “fighting up to the very end. He was fighting for all of the things he still believed in.”
Among Trump’s tweets on Friday night were retweets in support of Trish Regan, a TV host who left Fox Business after saying Democrats were using the coronavirus outbreak in their attempts to bring the president down.
“Can’t say enough wonderful things about [Trish Regan],” read one missive retweeted by Trump, calling her “one of the few conservatives in cable television … a great patriot and great friend”.
Another, tweeting a story from the far-right site Gateway Pundit, was headlined: “FOX Business Network Fires [Regan] for Telling the Truth About How Liberal Media Was Using Coronavirus to Take Down Trump.”
Here’s how we reported Regan’s original comments:
According to CNN media reporter and host Brian Stelter, meanwhile, “it should be noted that Regan’s commentary, while reprehensible, wasn’t much different than what Fox’s main stars were saying. Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, as I previously reported, both downplayed the virus and suggested it was being used by the media to ‘bludgeon’ Trump.”
Trump himself regularly complains about Democrats allegedly politicising the coronavirus outbreak. Perhaps, then, Regan was more vulnerable simply because she was not so big a name in the Fox News and Business firmament. After all, Hannity has a direct line to the president:
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Trump attacks 'lamestream media' as coronavirus cases rise
Good morning, and welcome to another day of Guardian coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in the US.
Donald Trump was up early on Saturday, tweeting complaints about “the Lamestream media”. Various stories have got the president’s goat, including one which said he has consulted New York Yankees star, drugs cheat and partner of Jennifer Lopez Alex Rodriguez about how to tackle the crisis.
ABC News put that one down to “multiple sources”. The president said: “When you see, ‘five sources say’, don’t believe the story…”
So that was fun.
Trump has also been pursuing attacks on governors he doesn’t like, particularly Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat he claimed with no discernible irony was “way in over her head”, “doesn’t have a clue” and “likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!”
Trump does have official business to attend to on Saturday, traveling to Norfolk, Virginia to deliver remarks as the USNS Comfort hospital ship sets sail for New York harbour. At the White House briefing on Friday, the 73-year-old president was asked: “Given that older Americans are advised to stay at home and avoid travel, is it absolutely necessary for you to go to Norfolk, Virginia tomorrow to wave goodbye to the ship?”
“No,” Trump answered, “but I have spirit for the country.”
“I think it’s great if I go to Virginia,” he added. “… It’s a tiny trip. And I think it’s a good thing when I go over there and I say thank you. It doesn’t mean I’m going to be hugging people and it doesn’t mean that I’m going to be shaking people’s hands and everything, but I think it sends a signal when the president is able to go there and say thank you. So, we’ll be careful.”
Trump is due to leave the White House at midday, perhaps a first chance to pass comment on new developments in the crisis.
According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, as of Saturday morning more than 100,000 US cases had been confirmed and 1,541 people had died. Nearly 45,000 of those cases and more than 500 of those deaths happened in New York state. Expect to hear more from Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Democrat widely said to be having a “good crisis” as a leader, later.
Bryan Armen Graham will be here soon to take you through the day. In the meantime, here’s a selection of further reading:
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