US coronavirus live: Florida, Georgia and Mississippi issue stay-home orders

The mission that officials are describing now is in-line with the country’s previously announced commitment to enhancing anti-drug operations. But it has likely taken on greater urgency following the indictment of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s socialist leader, last week.

Maduro and his military have been accused of leading a narcoterrorist conspiracy, and snuggling up to 250 metric tons of cocaine a year into the US.

The Trump administration offered $15m reward for Maduro’s arrest, which the Venezuelan leader called the work of a “racist cowboy”.

General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US has intelligence that that shows drug cartels are exploiting the coronavirus outbreak ramp up operations. “We will defend our country regardless of the cost,” he said. “We’re at war with Covid-19, we’re at war with terrorists. And we are at war with the drug cartels, as well. This is the United States military. You will not penetrate this country. You will not get past Jump Street.”

“This is a particularly important time for this operation to begin,” said defense secretary Mark Esper. According to Esper, as other countries work to protect their populations from the coronavirus threat, they’re getting lax on drug traffickers.

The coronavirus briefing has begun with an overview of the administration’s new “enhanced counter-narcotics operations”. Officials are deploying additional Navy combat ships, aircraft and Coast Guard to the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

According to Trump, the forces fighting drug traffickers will also have equipment to protect them from contracting coronavirus.

Georgia has reported 4,638 cases and 139 deaths. Mississippi has reported 1,073 cases and 22 deaths.

The Guardian has been tracking coronavirus statistics across the US:

House homeland security committee chairman Bennie Thompson is proposing a bill to establish a committee to review the US coronavirus response.

Thompson said the commission would be modeled off the 9/11 commission and try to identify lessons from the US coronavirus response to prepare for future crises.

Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said the commission would be comprised of 25 members from both parties who sit on relevant Senate and House committees.

“Americans will need answers on how our government can work better to prevent a similar crisis from happening again,” Thompson said in a statement. “This legislation we are introducing is the first step towards getting this done for the American people.”

It’s unclear if the bill can pass the Republican-controlled Senate, let only secure the signature of Trump, who will likely be hesitant to approve a congressional review of his administration’s early response to the virus.

The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports:

California’s early and stringent shelter-in-place orders have flattened the curve, but the state is still on track to run out of hospital beds in May, state officials said Wednesday.

State projections predict that even if Californians continue to follow the governor’s strict social distancing and stay-at-home protocols, the state will have about 60,000 covid-related hospitalizations by mid-May — more than the 50,000 beds that Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, is seeking to add to the state’s capacity.

“Even in this scenario, which is not the best case scenario, if we do what we’re doing today, we do cross this line,” said Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s health and human services secretary. “Our effort is to move it as far to the right as possible so we can ensure that we have the capacity in our health care delivery system, not just in hospital beds, but in ICU beds and ventilators.”

As of Wednesday, 774 Californians were in intensive care beds, a number of that Newsom acknowledged may seem modest when compared to numbers in other parts of the country. But the number was “roughly a quadrupling of where we were six days ago,” he said. Total hospitalizations — 1,855 — was “roughly a tripling of where we were just six days ago.”

“That gives you a sense of the nature of the spread and the nature of the attack of this virus and the nature of our focus as it relates to preparing for this surge,” Newsom said. “We’re preparing for a two-thirds increase in our hospital bed capacity in this state. We are preparing to meet that not just in the physical needs in the system, but making sure we have the appropriate protective gear, the ventilators, and personnel.”

There have been 8,769 positive cases in California and 186 deaths total, according to Sonoma County officials tracking the data.

Connecticut reported its first pediatric fatality linked to coronavirus, governor Ned Lamont announced in a tweet.

Lamont said an unresponsive six-week-old newborn was taken to a Hartford area hospital late last week and could not be revived. Later testing showed the child was positive for coronavirus.

Children have generally been shown to be at low risk of developing serious illness from coronavirus, but Lamont said this tragedy proved the need for everyone to respect health officials’ guidelines on mitigating the spread of the virus.

“This is a virus that attacks our most fragile without mercy,” Lamont wrote. “This also stresses the importance of staying home and limiting exposure to other people. Your life and the lives of others could literally depend on it.”

Trump is “sympathetic” to the idea of asking all Americans to wear face masks, according to Republican senator Pat Toomey, who has pushed for the idea.

The president is “is sympathetic to the idea and exploring whether or not they should include this recommendation as a part of their guidelines,” Toomey told reporters in a conference call today. Toomey was joined by Democratic senator Michael Bennet, who has also supported the idea.

“He is very open to this,” Toomey said of Trump. “I think he does want to wait until his team gives him a more formal recommendation.”

Several senior White House officials, including the vice president, have said the administration is taking a look at updating the guidance on face masks.

The CDC previously told Americans that face masks should be reserved for medical professionals who are treating coronavirus patients.