This article was updated on March 30 2020, at 1:02 p.m. ET.
The United States now leads the world in cases of COVID-19. We'll provide the latest updates on coronavirus cases, government response, impacts to our daily life, and more.
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Trump: Extend Distancing Guidelines to April 30
Updated March 30, 1:04 p.m.
President Donald Trump extended the nation’s social distancing guidelines until April 30 in an effort to slow the surging number of COVID-19 cases in the United States. Trump had previously talked about relaxing them on Easter, which is April 12.
"We will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread," he said, and will finalize the plan on Tuesday. "Over the next two weeks, it is very important to follow the guidelines."
"We can expect by June 1 we will be well on our way to recovery," Trump said. He said that he made his decision after input from Anthony Fauci, MD, and Deborah Birx, MD, key coronavirus task force members.
The U.S. now leads the world in the number of cases of COVID-19 with more than 144,000. The country also has more than 2,400 deaths attributed to the virus. Public health officials had pushed back on the idea of relaxing the guidelines before the virus was under more control.
Trump also said he was no longer considering the idea of opening up less hard-hit areas of the country sooner than others.
"We shouldn't take any solace'' when areas have low levels, Fauci said, as the numbers can escalate quickly.
Birx said the task force reviewed 12 different models to make the recommendation to extend the distancing guidelines.
Fauci said whiile modeling has pros and cons, it's crucial ''to look at the data as it is evolving and do everything you can to mitigate it."
Earlier in the day, Fauci said models show that the U.S. could potentially have millions of cases of coronavirus and more than 100,000 deaths.
He said on CNN's “State of the Union” that experts can't predict for sure how many cases and deaths the country will have. “We don't really have any firm idea,” Fauci said to host Jake Tapper.
“There are things called models. And when someone creates a model, they put in various assumptions. And the model is only as good and as accurate as your assumptions. And whenever the modelers come in, they give a worst-case scenario and a best-case scenario,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Generally, the reality is somewhere in the middle.”
“I mean, looking at what we're seeing now, I would say between 100,000 and 200,000” (deaths) and “millions of cases.”
Fauci added that he didn't think we needed to make a projection “when it's such a moving target, that you can so easily be wrong and mislead people.”
“What we do know, Jake, is that we got a serious problem in New York, we have a serious problem in New Orleans, and we're going to be developing serious problems in other areas,” Fauci said.
Worldwide, the number of cases has surged to more than 710,00 with more than 33,000 deaths.
First U.S. Infant Death Related to COVID-19
March 29, 10:05 a.m.
An infant in Chicago who tested positive for coronavirus is the first to die in the U.S. of causes related to the disease, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported Saturday.
“A full investigation is underway to determine the cause of death,” IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike, MD, said in a statement. “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.”
Children have accounted for a smaller number of cases of COVID-19 as older adults and people with underlying conditions or compromised immunity are considered at higher risk of the disease.
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that in China, children made up less than 1% of COVID-19 cases there. The study also reported one infant death there, in a 10-month old.
Early data from the CDC on U.S. cases found that 2% to 3% of hospitalizations from coronavirus were in children and teens under the age of 19.
CDC Issues Travel Advisory for 3 States
Updated March 29, 9:26 a.m.
The CDC has issued a “strong travel advisory” for three states in the New York metropolitan area -- the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the United States.
The advisory comes after President Donald Trump floated the idea of a quarantine on parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to stop people there from fleeing the area for other states.
After consulting with the White House Coronavirus Task Force and other officials, Trump tweeted that the quarantine wouldn't be necessary.
The advisory issued Saturday “urges residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.”
It doesn't apply to people in industries such as trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply.
Speaking with reporters at the White House earlier on Saturday, Trump said Florida is having problems with New Yorkers who are traveling there.
“A lot of New Yorkers are going down,” Trump said. “We don't want that. Heavily infected.”
According to MarketWatch, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had said the idea of a quarantine was “unworkable.”
In New York state alone there are more than 53,000 coronavirus cases and the death toll has passed 700, according toThe New York Times. New Jersey has more than 11,000 cases and 140 deaths.
Cuomo, however, said Saturday that the number of new hospitalizations in New York had dropped from 1,154 on Thursday to 847, signaling that perhaps stay-at-home orders were working.
FDA Authorizes Rapid-Result Coronavirus Test
March 28, 11:08 a.m.
The FDA has authorized a coronavirus test that the manufacturer says can tell if someone is infected with the virus within 5 minutes.
The test is meant to be used in places like a doctor's office, emergency room, or urgent care center. The test will provide results through a platform currently used by many of those locations for tests like flu and strep, instead of sending the throat or nasal swab to a lab for analysis.
The FDA's emergency use authorization (EUA), issued on Friday, does not mean that the FDA has approved the test, but that it is allowing its use because of the coronavirus outbreak.
In a news release, Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough in Illinois said the test can tell if a person has the coronavirus in as little as 5 minutes and tell if someone doesn't have the virus in 13 minutes.
A shortage of tests has hindered efforts to contain the virus in the U.S, which leads the world with more than 100,000 cases of COVID-19. Testing has been focused on priority groups, such as hospitalized patients and health care professionals with symptoms, according to CDC guidelines.
Abbott said it will make the tests available to health care providers next week and work with the government to send the tests to areas where they're most needed.
President Trump Signs Coronavirus Relief Bill
March 27, 4:40 p.m.
President Donald Trump signed into law a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package after the U.S. House voted Friday to approve it.
The bill includes direct payments to taxpayers of up to $1,200 per person and $500 for each child, with income limits deciding the amounts. It also includes nearly $400 billion to help small businesses, $250 billion to increase unemployment compensation, and hundreds of billions more for large corporations.
The bill also provides relief for the beleaguered U.S. health care system. According to the American Hospital Association, the bill:
- Provides almost $127 billion to reimburse hospitals for coronavirus expenses, develop vaccines, and purchase supplies, among other things.
- Creates an extra 20% Medicare payment to rural and urban inpatient hospitals with coronavirus patients.
- Eliminates $8 billion in planned Medicaid cuts through the rest of this fiscal year, which ends Oct. 1, and for fiscal year 2021.
- Aims to improve the supply chain for masks and drugs, among other items.
- Should expand coverage for coronavirus testing and services.
- Allows states that chose not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to extend coverage to uninsured Americans who would have been covered had expansion occurred.
- Expands telehealth access in rural areas.
How many people have been diagnosed with the virus, and how many have died?
According to Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 745,000 cases and 35,000 deaths worldwide. More than 156,000 people have also recovered.
Italy, Spain and China have the most deaths.
For the first time since the outbreak began in December, China -- once the epicenter of what would become a global pandemic -- reported no new domestic cases last week. The Chinese government is lifting the lockdown on Hubei Province and Wuhan, the capital, where the pandemic originated. There have been more than 81,000 cases in China and more than 3,200 deaths there.
How many cases of COVID-19 are in the United States?
There are more than 144,000 cases in the U.S. of COVID-19 and more than 2,400 deaths, according to data complied by Johns Hopkins University and The COVID Tracking Project. See a map of cases and deaths by state here.
New York, Washington, and California are the states with the most deaths.
What travel restrictions are there?
The State Department has urged all U.S. citizens to avoid any international travel due to the global impact of the new coronavirus.
If you are currently overseas, the department wants you to come home, “unless [you] are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period,” according to a statement.
“Many countries are experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and implementing travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines, closing borders and prohibiting non-citizens from entry with little advance notice,” the agency says.
In addition, the State Department says it will not issue any new passports except for people with a “qualified life-or-death emergency and who need a passport for immediate international travel within 72 hours.” The U.S. is banning all foreign travel to the United States from most of Europe for 30 days beginning midnight Friday, March 13. American citizens are not included in the ban.
The U.S. has also temporarily suspended nonessential travel to Mexico and Canada.
Kathleen Doheny, Ralph Ellis, and Jonathan Mintz contributed to this report.