Coronavirus US live: Trump urges Congress to get Americans 'back to work'

There has been an ongoing debate among Republican and Democratic lawmakers across the country over whether the Trump administration needed aggressively use the Defense Production Act to activate private industry to help provide medical resources to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.

Generally Democrats have been urging more aggressive leveraging through the law while Republicans have argued that private industry is a better vehicle.

Cuomo during his press conference stressed that the law is the best way to provide the ventilators and beds his state needs.

“I understand the federal government’s point that many companies have come forward and say we want to help,” Cuomo said. “If we don’t have the ventilators in 14 days it does us no good. The Federal Defense [Production] act can actually help companies … Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me.”

Cuomo added “and I do not for the life of me understand the reluctance to use the Federal Production Act.”

Cuomo also said that the number of cases are greater than other large states.

“New York has 25,000 cases! It has ten times the problems that California has. It has ten times the cases that Washington state has,” Cuomo said. “And New York you are looking at a problem that is at a totally different dimension. The problem is the volume.”

“We need the federal help and we need the federal help now,” Cuomo said. He went on to say: “What happens to New York is going to wind up happening to California and Washington state and Illinois. It is just happening to us first.”

Essentially, Cuomo in this press conference is warning that there need to be more hospital beds as previous estimates about the pandemic are projected to be off.

“It is clear that we must increase the hospital capacity to reach the highest apex,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo has previously vowed to bring in more resources to fight the spreading virus. He has said he needed more masks, ventilators, and wanted to see more doctors, even retired ones, come in to help. New hospital facilities are being built.

“The emergency hospitals that we are building at Westbury and Stony Brook will be helpful,” Cuomo said. “But they’re nowhere near the number of beds we’ll need.”

Cuomo added that he had “no problem” using beds at dorms on college campuses to increase the number of beds.

“I will turn this state upside down to use the number of beds we need,” Cuomo said.

More Cuomo: “We haven’t flattened the curve and the curve is actually increasing.”

The New York governor is not sugarcoating the latest figures on the spread of the pandemic.

“That rate of increase, that apex, they anticipate could be approximately 14 to 21 days away,” Cuomo said. He went on to say “we’ve increased testing to the highest level in the country. We’re also trying all the new drug therapies.”

Cuomo: The rate of new infections is doubling about every three days

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has just started his presser for updating the public on New York’s efforts to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo opened up the conference saying “the rate of anticipated increase” of the virus “has gone up.”

Cuomo added “The rate of infections is doubling about every three days

Watch it below:

Over in Virginia, Liberty University, the private evangelical Christian university run by Jerry Falwell Jr., is reopening its doors. Via the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

LYNCHBURG — As the coronavirus threatens to spread across the Lynchburg region, Liberty University officials are preparing to welcome back up to 5,000 students from spring break this week.

Defying a national trend of campus closures, President Jerry Falwell Jr. has invited students to return to residence halls and has directed faculty members to continue to report to campus even as most classes move online.

In an interview Sunday night, Falwell said somewhere between several hundred to more than 5,000 students are expected to live in campus dorms, where they will continue coursework online rather than in classrooms.

Meanwhile, hundreds of professors and instructors without a valid health exemption will come to campus to hold office hours.

“I think we have a responsibility to our students — who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here — to give them the ability to be with their friends, to continue their studies, enjoy the room and board they’ve already paid for and to not interrupt their college life,” Falwell said.

Across the country lawmakers have been grappling with how to effectively contain and fight the Coronavirus pandemic. Much of that has fallen on governors, many of whom have issued stay at home orders.

But some lawmakers have argued for caution in doing that. Here’s Oklahoma senator James Lankford when asked if Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, another Republican, should issue a “stay at home order.”

As Lankford said the challenge with these mandates is deciding the exception so that people can still go to work and buy food or continue life as normally as possible.

The big news out of the business world this morning is that the Ford Motor Company, GE Healthcare and the 3M company are teaming up to make medical equipment in response to the Coronavirus epidemic.

CNN Business reports: “Healthcare workers around the country have expressed concern about difficulties in attaining enough critical supplies, such as masks, gloves and ventilators, to deal with the influx of patients suffering from the highly contagious virus.”

According to a Ford press release:

DEARBORN, Mich., March 24, 2020 – Ford Motor Company, joining forces with firms including 3M and GE Healthcare, is lending its manufacturing and engineering expertise to quickly expand production of urgently needed medical equipment and supplies for healthcare workers, first responders and patients fighting coronavirus.

In addition, Ford plans to assemble more than 100,000 face shields per week and leverage its in-house 3D printing capability to produce components for use in personal protective equipment.

“This is such a critical time for America and the world. It is a time for action and cooperation. By coming together across multiple industries, we can make a real difference for people in need and for those on the front lines of this crisis,” said Bill Ford, Ford’s executive chairman. “At Ford, we feel a deep obligation to step up and contribute in times of need, just as we always have through the 117-year history of our company.”

Outside of Washington, the ripple effects of the Coronavirus pandemic are still being felt. Japan agreed with the president of the International Olympic Committee to delay the summer Olympics.

Here’s The Wall Street Journal:

TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he agreed with the International Olympic Committee’s president that the Summer Olympics previously scheduled to start in Tokyo on July 24, 2020, would be delayed by around one year.

Mr. Abe spoke by phone Tuesday with IOC President Thomas Bach.

Citing the spreading coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese leader said it was difficult to hold the Olympics this year and a delay was needed to ensure the safety of athletes and spectators. He said he proposed a delay of “about one year” and received “100% agreement” from Mr. Bach.

“We have agreed that the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be held by the summer of 2021 at the latest,” Mr. Abe said in Tokyo. He said study would now begin on arranging venues for the Games.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat on Capitol Hill, just finished an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer and her tone was overall optimistic.

When Cramer asked “can we get something done today?” Pelosi responded “I think there is real optimism that we could get something done in the next few hours.”

Pelosi went on to say that Democratic lawmakers had done a good job of using their leverage to move the proposal in a a direction more favorable to Democrats. In an illustration to how much of a sticking point the industries fund is Pelosi once again referred to it as a “slush fund.”

But even Pelosi was cautious in declaring victory. Cramer, later in the interview, asked if fiscal hawks on the Hill would like the bill. Pelosi responded “we can say when we have a deal” adding “we’re all receptive to having something done.”

Pelosi’s comments fall in line with other lawmakers who have suggested a deal is imminent. It’s a rare moment for so many lawmakers to sound so optimistic while a bill is still in negotiations but that’s where we’re at.

“Everybody appreciates the gravity of the situation, at least in Congress,” Pelosi said.