Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the first time he and
Dr. Deborah Birx recommended strong mitigation efforts to combat the
coronavirus, President Trump agreed to them, Fauci said at the White
House coronavirus task force briefing.
He also added that when he recommended that the guidelines to slow the spread should be extended by a month, Trump also agreed.
Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Birx is the White House coronavirus task force response coordinator.
The U.S. has 572,587 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 23,078 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
Update at 6:30 PM: The Department
of Health and Human Services announces five new contracts to procure
new ventilators, Trump said during the briefing.
More than 6K ventilators will be added to the
national stockpile by May 8. He expects to have 120K total ventilators
by the end of the year.
6:32 PM: Orders 60 more decontamination systems from Batelle to sterilize N95 masks.
6:34 PM: More than 3M COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the U.S., with testing currently running at about 150K per day.
6:36 PM: The Census Bureau is
asking for a 120-day delay to complete the 2020 census; the bureau has
temporarily suspended field activities to slow the spread of the virus.
6:39 PM: Trump said the government is close to completing guidelines to re-open the country “hopefully even ahead of schedule.”
The White House will issue guidelines to governors to help them re-open their states safely.
“We want to return to normal life,” Trump said.
6:43 PM: More than 80M people
will get their economic impact payments directly to their bank accounts
by Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
6:44 PM: The SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program has distributed $230B through 4,600 lenders participating in the program, Mnuchin said.
The Treasury has requested $250B more funds for the small business loan program, he said.
6:50 PM: Mnuchin said Trump is
considering a May 1 re-opening of the economy. Trump said he’s setting
up a number of committees to address the issue, but “everything has to
be safe.”
6:55 PM: Mnuchin says he’s “very pleased” with discussions the government has had with the airline industry.
He also said he and White House economic adviser
Larry Kudlow are developing plans for almost every single industry
impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
6:57 PM: Trump said, “The authority of the president of the United States is total and the governors know that.”
6:58 PM: He said he’ll lift the travel restrictions regarding Europe when the time is right.
7:03 PM: Speaking about pressure
on mortgage servicers, Mnuchin said, “We’re very aware of the issue.
We’re going to make sure that the market function properly,” Mnuchin
said.
7:05 PM: The Treasury has had conversations with the Federal Housing Finance Agency about whether Fannie Mae (OTCQB:FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCQB:FMCC) need to take any actions regarding mortgage liquidity and the Treasury will give the FHFA whatever permissions it needs.
7:18 PM: The White House will be
putting out guidelines and recommendations for re-opening states very
soon, within a few days, Trump said.
The U.S. “has more of a constitutional problem than a mechanical problem” on the contact-tracing technology that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) are working on, Trump said.
7:31 PM: The White House is
forming a number of committees to advise on re-opening the economy,
including for transportation, manufacturing, and religious leaders.
7:35 PM: Abbot Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) is producing about 50K cartridges a day for the new 15-minute COVID-19 test, Vice President Mike Pence said.
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