US coronavirus live: Trump floats three-state quarantine as New York deaths rise to 728

New York governor Andrew Cuomo says Trump’s proposal of an enforceable quarantine for parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut is a “preposterous” idea and counter-productive toward the president’s goals of restarting the economy.

“It would be chaos and mayhem,” Cuomo said on CNN. “If you start walling off areas all across the country, it would just be totally bizarre, counterproductive, anti-American, antisocial.”

He added: “That’s not a quarantine. That would be a lockdown. If you said that we are geographically confining people, that would be a lockdown. Then we would be Wuhan, China. And that wouldn’t make any sense. This is a time when the president says he’s trying to restart the economy. New York is the financial sector. You geographically restrict a state, you would paralyze the financial sector. You think the Dow Jones has gone down [now], it would drop like a stone. I don’t even believe it’s legal [due to the] interstate commerce clause. I think it would be exactly the opposite of everything the president is talking about. How would you ever operationally stop goods from coming to New York and New Jersey and Connecticut?”

Cuomo says he doubts Trump was even serious about the idea, saying the president didn’t mention it even in passing when they spoke on the phone this morning.

“If the president was considering this, I guarantee you he would have called me,” he says. “We talk about relatively trivial matters when it comes to dealing with this situation. This, this is a civil war kind of discussion.”

The Illinois department of health has announced the first known infant death from Covid-19 in the state.

Illinois governor JB Pritzker said an investigation is under way to determine the cause of death and whether the child, who was younger than one year, had other health issues.

“There has never before been a death associated with COVID-19 in an infant,” said Dr Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois department of public health. “A full investigation is under way to determine the cause of death. 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.”

According to the AP, the infection rate among children of Covid-19 is extremely rare:

The risk of death and severe illness from Covid-19 is greater for older adults and people with other health problems. In most cases, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitalization.

Children have made up a small fraction of coronavirus cases worldwide. A letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Chinese researchers earlier this month reported the death of a 10-month-old with Covid-19. The infant had a bowel blockage and organ failure, and died four weeks after being hospitalized.

Separate research published in the journal Pediatrics traced 2,100 infected children in China and noted one death, a 14-year old. The study found less than 6% of children were seriously ill.

The Associated Press reports that leaders of a number of South Carolina cities are defying the opposition of the state’s governor to stay-at-home orders:

Leaders of several South Carolina cities say they are defying Gov. Henry McMaster’s opposition to stay-at-home orders and Attorney General Alan Wilson’s opinion that only McMaster can issue such measures.

In Folly Beach, where town officials had removed their checkpoint and had allowed vacation rentals to resume, the city council unanimously voted to re-establish the checkpoint and ban any new short-term rentals beginning Sunday.

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin says on Twitter that his city’s stay-at-home order would take effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday as scheduled. He says Wilson’s Friday opinion is incorrect on a constitutional and statutory basis.

McMaster issued a new executive order on Friday mandating that anyone entering South Carolina from New York and other known coronavirus hotspots – New Jersey, Connecticut and New Orleans – must quarantine themselves for 14 days, but the Republican governor reiterated his stance that he sees no reason for residents to remain at home or shelter-in-place.

“We hope that our visitors will be as responsible as the people of South Carolina have been in following the recommendations and requirements,” McMaster said at a Friday afternoon news conference. ”This is a requirement that has the force of law.”

There were 539 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths on Friday at the time of McMaster’s order.

One day after announcing her state’s first two deaths from the coronavirus, Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo has issued an order mandating that residents stay at home.

Raimondo said the directive will extend through 13 April and will ban gatherings of more than five people, shutter all non-essential businesses for two weeks and mandate that all people entering into the state for a nonwork-related purpose self-quarantine for 14 days.

“Today, I’m issuing a stay at home order that will be in place until April 13. This means unless you’re getting food, medicine, gas or going to work, you need to stay home,” Raimondo said.

She continued: “You can go outside to get some fresh air, but if you leave your home, keep the time out to a minimum and always keep 6 feet away from others. Starting immediately, all gatherings of more than 5 people are banned. This means everywhere. If you have to go to work, you should be limiting your time there and interacting with as few people as possible.

“In addition, starting immediately, any person coming to RI by any mode of transportation after visiting any other state for a non-work-related purpose must self-quarantine for 14 days. This restriction will not apply to public health, public safety or healthcare workers.

“I want to make a note to commuters. As I’ve already said, if you’re able to work from home, you’re required to do so. If you live in RI and work in another state at a job where you can’t work from home, you can go to work. But when you come home to RI, you must self-quarantine. Starting Monday, all non-essential retail businesses must shut down their stores. I don’t make this decision lightly, but I’m hearing too many reports of crowded stores. So for now, we need you to shop online to support your local retailers.”

The death of one person in their 80s on Friday night and another in their 70s on Saturday in Rhode Island leaves only three US states with zero reported deaths: Hawaii, West Virginia and Wyoming.

More than 200 people have been confirmed to have the virus in the Ocean State, according to the Rhode Island department of health.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis says his administration is looking into ways to secure the state border amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying “it’s not fair to the people of Florida” that outsiders have continued to flock to the state.

“I don’t as governor have the ability to shut down flights,” he says during his daily briefing. “But I think it’s an issue when people who are in the hot zone, then leaving the hot zone, to come to different parts of the country.”

DeSantis says they have instituted a 14-day self-quarantine for all visitors from New York airports. All arrivals are met by National Guard and Department of Health personnel to be screened, provided information and given the instruction about self-isolation.

The governor says he’s signed an executive order to establish a checkpoint at the Louisiana state border on Interstate 10 to inspect people entering the state and his administration is looking to the same at the border on I-95, the point of entry for most New Yorkers.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida has soared to 3,763, more than five times the total of 706 from a week ago. Eight more deaths were reported overnight on Saturday, bringing the overall total to 54.

The Associated Press reports that New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration is asking for donations of protective equipment:

The donations can be dropped off at Salvation Army drop boxes next to New Orleans Fire Department stations. Items being accepted include masks, gloves, disposable medical gowns, goggles and face shields.

“Like many places around the world, orders of PPE equipment made back in November 2019 have yet to be filled and our supply is running low. Any additional equipment the public can donate at this time will help keep our first responders safe and out on the streets,”

New Orleans Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Collin Arnold said.

The Bayou State has emerged as one of the biggest hotspots of the pandemic with deaths from Covid-19 surging by more than 40% in a single day earlier this week.

There were more than 3,300 confirmed cases as of Saturday morning’s latest update with 549 new cases since Friday. The number of reported deaths is up to 137, up from 119 yesterday.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau says anyone showing symptoms of Covid-19 will not be allowed to board domestic flights or intercity trains. The directive will go into effect on Monday at noon.

“It will be important for operators of airlines and trains to ensure that people who are exhibiting symptoms do not board those trains,” Trudeau said during his daily address. “It will be a Transport Canada rule that will be enforced, but at the same time, we’re telling people stay home if it’s not absolutely essential for you to travel.”

The Public Health Agency of Canada will provide guidance to air operators and rail companies on conducting health checks on passengers boarding flights and trains within Canada or departing the country.

Ohio governor Mike DeWine says Battelle labs has developed technology that would sterilize PPE masks and makes a public appeal for the FDA to give approval for its implementation, adding that it would help in current hotspots like Seattle and New York. The governor says the process could sterilize 80,000 masks per machine daily.

“Please, please approve these. This would boost our capacity to be able to re-use these,” DeWine says at his ongoing news conference at the state house in Columbus. “Please do this. It really is truly a matter of life and death.”

He follows with a second plea to Quest and LabCorps to ramp up their testing capacity, saying the state’s confirmed total coronavirus cases climbed to 1,406, including 344 hospitalizations and 25 deaths, with the apex expected in mid-May.

Trump is now speaking in front of the USNS Comfort hospital ship, which sets sail Saturday for coronavirus-stricken New York City. The USNS Comfort is due to arrive in Manhattan on Monday.

Trump’s travel to Norfolk, Virginia to bid the USNS Comfort bon voyage stands at odds with public health officials’s advisories against non-essential travel due to coronavirus.

“This great ship behind me is a 70,000-ton message of hope and solidarity to the incredible people of New York, a place I know very well, a place I love,” Trump says. “We are with you all the way, and always will be.”

“You have the unwavering support of the entire nation, the entire government, and the entire American people,” Trump says.

Trump’s message of unity toward New York came in the wake of comments that he was weighing the imposition of a quarantine on this state, as well as New Jersey and parts of Connecticut.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference that Trump hadn’t mentioned a possible quarantine during a call with him earlier.

“We will stop at nothing to protect the health of New Yorkers, and the health of people in our country,” Trump also says in front of the USNS Comfort, insisting that people from the New York metro area self-quarantine if they travel elsewhere.

“I am now considering, and will make a decision very quickly, very shortly, a quarantine because it’s such a hot area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, we’ll be announcing that one way or another fairly soon,” he also said. “This does not apply to people such as truckers from outside the New York area … it won’t affect trade in any way.”

Houston mayor Sylvester Turner says there are 232 positive Covid-19 cases (up from 69 yesterday) in Texas’s biggest metropolis during a briefing at ISD’s Butler Stadium, the city’s first non-private testing site. “The numbers will rise as we continue testing,” he says.

The mayor says the second coronavirus death has been recorded today and three more Houston police officers have tested positive, bringing the total count to seven.

“It is our intent collectively to blunt the progression of this virus,” Turner says. “To slow down the growth, the spread, so that our healthcare delivery system is not overwhelmed. We see what’s happening in New York and in Louisiana and in other places. We’re trying to get ahead of that, to slow the progression, and so we need everyone to really take this situation seriously.”

He adds: “People may just look at the numbers and say the numbers in New York are 25,000 and the state of New York are 45,000, but in the city of Houston the numbers are just 232. And there are 2.3 million people just in the city alone and over five million people in our surrounding region, so that’s not a big deal. Well let me just say, the testing has been limited. We know that there are more cases. And the way I look at it is, I take 232 and I multiply it times 10. Because we just dont know. Don’t get bogged down on the numbers. The more testing we do, the numbers are going to rise.”

Trump’s proposal of an “enforcable quarantine” for parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut was the big news from his press gaggle before departing on Marine One for Norfolk, where he is scheduled to make remarks and bid bon voyage to the USNS Comfort, which is bound for New York to provide relief to hospitals overwhelmed with responding to the coronavirus.

Moments ago, he made it Twitter official.

Some of the toplines from New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefing, which ended moments ago:

• Cuomo said the price of a ventilator has increased from $25,000 when the state began purchasing to about $45,000 today due to the spike in demand
• New York pharmacies have been asked to deliver medications free of charge
• President Trump has approved four additional temporary hospital sites with a total capacity of 4,000 additional beds
• Cuomo says 600 beds will be reserved for coronavirus patients only at three of the purpose-built sites
• The number of New York coronavirus cases increased to 52,318 and deaths to 728 – but hospitalizations dropped from 847 on Friday from 1,154 on Thursday
• Cuomo says he did not discuss a potential “enforceable quarantine” for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in reference to Trump’s comments on the North Lawn only moments earlier