U.S. Covid-19 testing reaches more than 1M: Coronavirus briefing

More than 1M Americans have been tested for coronavirus, President Trump said at the White House coronavirus task force briefing.

No other country has conducted that many tests, he said.

More than 100K tests per day are being conducted, said Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Update at 5:20 PM ET: FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) will be delivering tomorrow its new coronavirus test that can produce a positive diagnosis in as little as five minutes.

5:30 PM: FEMA is sending ventilators to New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois and Louisiana, Trump said.

5:35 PM: Honeywell (NYSE:HON) says it’s already doubled its production of N95 masks and is working on doubling it again soon; eventually, it will boost production to five times what it is today.

5:41 PM: United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) has started manufacturing face shields and expects to make 10K shields in the next four weeks, said UTX Chairman and CEO Greg Hayes at the briefing.

5:49 PM: Trump says the social distancing guidelines may be “toughened up a little bit.” Yesterday, he extended the guidelines, originally planned to last 15 days, to the end of April.

Travel restrictions will stay in place and more may be added, he said, referring to restrictions on travel from EU, Canada and Mexico.

5:56 PM: “We’ve talked about” a national stay-at-home order, Trump said, but added that it’s “pretty unlikely” he’ll call for one. The travel advisory is working well, he said.

6:00 PM: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he expects the virus to become a seasonal occurrence, but points out that the U.S. will be better prepared for the next time.

The U.S. now has much better testing capacity and is better able to trace contacts among people. Furthermore, several clinical trials for treatments are being conducted, Fauci said.

6:07 PM: Trump expects to build up the economy quickly once the virus subsides. “I think we’ll be stronger for it.”

6:10 PM: Briefing ends.

In the U.S., 159,184 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed and 2,945 people have died from the virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.

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