E3: Trump says country will reopen 'sooner than people think' – as it happened

We’re ending our coverage on the US blog today. You can continue to follow coronavirus news updates on the Guardian’s global blog. Some key events in the US:

Sitting in the White House briefing room on Monday, I noted that Donald Trump struck an unusually genial tone as he described a phone call with his likely presidential election rival, Joe Biden, whom he usually refers to as “Sleepy Joe”.

Here is a report from the Guardian’s Julian Borger on comments made by Trump about the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, during his daily press briefing.

Donald Trump has said he asked US pharmaceutical companies working on experimental coronavirus drugs to approach Boris Johnson’s doctors and offer their help, after it emerged that the British prime minister was in intensive care.

In an evening press briefing, Trump did not name the companies or the drugs, but earlier in the day he held a conference about therapeutic drugs with the heads of four US pharmaceutical and biotech companies: Amgen, Genetech, Gilead, and Regeneron.

Related: Trump: I have asked US pharma CEOs to offer Johnson experimental Covid-19 treatments

The daily briefing has ended. Some key fact checks and falsehoods from Trump:

Dr Birx shared a personal story about her granddaughter’s current high fever and her inability to visit. Earlier, Trump accidentally referred to her “grandson”.

“I’m sure it’s roseola or something,” Birx says of her 10-month-old granddaughter’s high fever.

She doubts it’s coronavirus because her family is self-isolating.

“No one is allowed into that house or out of that house because there’s too much precious cargo inside,” Birx says https://t.co/zvWlrulgbf

More details from the Guardian’s Sam Levine on the Wisconsin election:

The US supreme court ruled 5-4 that Wisconsin voters have to have their mail-in ballots postmarked by 7 April, election day, in order to have them counted in the state’s closely watched election. The deadline for election officials to receive the ballot is 13 April. The decision, which came shortly after the state supreme court ordered the election to move forward on Tuesday, ends days of legal fighting over the deadline for receiving absentee ballots in the state.

While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the court’s order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement. A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she has not received. The question here is whether tens of thousands of Wisconsin citizens can vote safely in the midst of a pandemic.”

Dr Fauci is now speaking at the briefing, expressing some optimism about recent hospital data and shelter in place efforts:

We got there through mitigation. We cut off the stream of people who require hospitalization. This is an indication, despite all the suffering and the death that has occurred.. that what we have been doing has been working. Keep it up. This is going to get us out of it. This is our best and only great public health tool...

If you do it right, those that have not peaked, will not peak.”

The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine has an update on the Wisconsin primary, scheduled for this week:

Breaking news: U.S. Supreme Court says ballots must be postmarked by April 7 in order to count in Wisconsin. The ballots can still be received until April 13.

"The Court’s decision on the narrow question before the
Court should not be viewed as expressing an opinion on the
broader question of whether to hold the election, or whether
other reforms or modifications in election procedures in
light of COVID–19 are appropriate." pic.twitter.com/YkGElLeKfp

"While I do not doubt the good faith of my colleagues, the Court’s order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement. A voter cannot deliver for postmarking a ballot she has not received."

Related: Wisconsin primary: state supreme court orders voting to move ahead

Trump has left the podium, after more than 90 minutes. Mike Pence is speaking now. Here’s a clip of one of the president’s testiest exchanges with the media today:

Video of President Trump lashing out at Fox News correspondent @KristinFisher after she asked about coronavirus testing.

Reminder: Trump lashed out at Fox News' @johnrobertsFox recently for asking about how uninsured Americans will be helped with treatments for coronavirus. https://t.co/fWYo8xxDp4

Trump is lamenting the impact on sports, saying, “I hope basketball can maybe do their playoffs ... A lot of people are tired looking at games that are five years old ... You get tired of looking at nine-year-old baseball games ... People want to see sports, sports are a great thing for this country. I hope football can start. I told them they may be able to. I hope they can start with people in the stands ... You have seats. Those seats are meant for people to be sitting next to each other.”

Football season starts in September.

Trump is praising healthcare workers on the front lines, and makes an offhand remark about giving them “bonuses” when this is over. He didn’t offer any further details. He has compared them to “soldiers going into battle”.

Trump is fielding questions on the commander fired over his coronavirus memo, suggesting he doesn’t think his life should be “destroyed” as a result:

He made a mistake. He shouldn’t be sending letter. He’s the captain … you don’t send letters and then it leaks into a newspaper. I may get involved ...If I can help two good people, I’m going to help him”

A useful fact check on Trump’s attempt to draw a comparison between his handling of Covid-19 and the Obama administration’s handling of H1N1:

Trump falsely says of the H1N1 pandemic: "The other administration, they didn’t even know — it was like they didn’t even know it was here."

Just ridiculous. Obama declared a public health emergency within two weeks of the first confirmed US case.

Trump took a break from discussing Covid-19 to share misleading assertions about undocumented immigrants, raising concerns about “criminals” in sanctuary cities. There is no evidence that sanctuary policies meant to protect undocumented people are linked to crime.

Fact check: Trump is again spreading the falsehood that Covid-19 is a “virus that nobody ever thought possible”.

An October 2019 draft report by the Department of Health and Human Services, obtained by the New York Times “drove home just how underfunded, underprepared and uncoordinated the federal government would be for a life-or-death battle with a virus for which no treatment existed”.

The exact language of a question that Trump called “horrid”:

By the way, this is the question Trump considered "horrid": "Testing is still a big issue in this country. When can hospitals expect to receive a quick turn-around of test results?"

Dr Birx made her first comments of today’s briefing, urging Americans to limit trips to the grocery store and pharmacy as much as possible, suggesting one family member do the shopping and go once every two weeks. In states that are bracing for the worst this week, officials have urged residents to completely stay home and avoid stores altogether if they have the supplies they need.

Dr Birx clarifies her weekend statement urging Americans not to go to grocery stores or pharmacies during next two weeks. Says she meant families should consolidate visits and limit to once in two weeks. Was stressing importance of CDC guidelines to avoid other people. pic.twitter.com/QIBnLh226Q

The president has attacked governors, again, returning to his refrain that they are kind to him in private and then complain about him to the media. This time, he also criticizes one governor as a “Rino”, which means “Republican in name only”.

Governors across the country have repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of ventilators and unsuccessfully sought the federal government’s help.

The Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn has additional context on Trump’s attack on the inspector general:

Trump has called Christi Grimm, inspector general for the department of health and human services, biased, citing her nomination under the Obama administration. The office of inspector general is a generic term for the oversight division of every federal agency, or essentially the watchdog of the government. Since its goal is to investigate the government to prevent inefficiency or fraud, it’s by default non-partisan. IG reports have often scolded administrations in their reviews of protocols and process.

Fact check on Trump’s claims that nobody thought a pandemic like this would happen:

In fact, the US intelligence community, public health experts and officials in Trump’s own administration had warned for years that the country was at risk from a pandemic, including specific warnings about a coronavirus outbreak.

Trump has gone on a brief tangent about his border wall, praising his progress. Some background from the Guardian’s Nina Lakhani on how construction continues, despite the ongoing pandemic:

Related: Construction of US-Mexico border wall proceeds despite coronavirus pandemic

Trump has been most bothered today by questions about the damning inspector general report on tests, personally attacking reporters, including:

“You should say congratulations, great job, instead of being so horrid,” and, “I wish we had a fair media in this country and we don’t.”

Fact check on Trump’s claims that the the US testing is “better” than any other country in the world.

In fact, some of the initial coronavirus tests sent out to states were seriously flawed – some did not even work. Part of the problem came from the CDC insisting it would manufacture the tests itself.

Trump has repeatedly dodged questions about the inspector general report out today that said hospitals have not had access to the tests they need. Trump has interrupted questions about it, asking for the name of the inspector general and date of appointment. The president has attempted to suggest, without evidence, that the inspector general behind the report is politically motivated against Trump.

Trump has repeatedly asked a reporter whether she is employed by “China”, saying, “Who do you work for? China.” When the reporter says she works for a private company based in Hong Kong, he says, “Good.”

Here’s Trump on Boris Johnson:

Related: Global leaders send messages of support to Boris Johnson

Asked about his suggestion last week that he was looking at travel restrictions around hotspots, Trump suggests he’s not planning to do that:

We’re looking at it. The airlines have been cutting their routes. We need some flights for emergency use for military people, for medical people. There are very few flights. The flights going out are 3-4% full. They are generally very very empty planes, but it’s a tiny amount of flights relative to the overall...”

Asked about Boris Johnson’s Covid-19 strategy and whether he “downplayed” it, Trump says:

He was looking at it differently. He was looking at it ‘ride it out’. meaning ‘whatever it is, it is’, then you see what happens, and the numbers become monumental. We actually moved early.

Trump was asked for more details on the medicines he said he had sent to Boris Johnson’s doctors, but he gives few more details, and does not name the companies involved:

Well it’s a very, it’s a very complex treatment of things that they’ve just recently developed, and that they have a lot of experience with something else but recently for this. And .. they’ve already concurred. They’ve had meetings with the doctors, and we’ll see whether or not they want to go that route. But when you’re in intensive care it’s a big deal. So they’re there and they’re ready.”

Whether the US can reopen by 30 April, Trump declines to directly respond, but says, “We certainly want to try.” He also says the US “can get more than back to normal on the economic side”.

Dr Fauci strikes a different tone, saying, “We will go back gradually ... if you want to get to pre-coronavirus, that might not ever happen.” He expresses optimism about the vaccine.

Asked about the states that don’t have stay at home orders, Trump says, “We do have a constitutional problem in doing that. I can do it, but ... I would rather have the governors do it and make their own determination.”

Dr Fauci addresses this, saying the states that are holdouts may not have strict orders in place, but are adopting rules that are, in effect, the same.

Asked about details on his conversation with Biden, Trump says:

Very very good talk a warm talk I enjoyed him. He had suggestions, doesn’t mean I agree with those suggestions. I also told him some of the things we’re doing...”

Fact check from the Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn on Trump’s test claims:

Trump claimed the US tested more people than any country in the world. But it’s unclear how he’s measuring that, whether total cases or per capita basis. While the US has overtaken South Korea in total numbers of coronavirus tests administered, it has conducted fewer tests per capita given the US population is over six times larger.

Trump is now taking questions. First up about Boris Johnson. He says:

“I found Boris to be a fantastic person, a fantastic warm smart guy. He loves his country, you see that. He fought like hell for his country. Intensive care is big stuff, really big stuff...”

Trump, who previously said he wanted the country to open by Easter, is again striking an optimistic tone, saying, “We will rise from this crisis with more strength, unity and resolve... We’re going to have a rough week, but there’s tremendous light at the end of the tunnel.

Regarding reopening the country, he said, “It’s going to be sooner than people think.”

Trump says the US has performed 1.79m tests across the US. He’s downplaying the shortage of tests in the country, which has caused major problems. Some background on how the shortage is playing out in California:

Related: Why is California still waiting for nearly 60,000 coronavirus test results?

Trump took a jab at the Democratic governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, saying, “Governor Pritzker may not be happy when he talks to the press.”

The governor had criticized Trump earlier about his criticisms of states.

Trump on his conversation with Joe Biden today:

We had a really wonderful, warm conversation. We talked about, pretty much this. This is what everyone’s talking about. He gave me his point of view and I fully understood that. We just had a very friendly conversation. It lasted probably 15 minutes. Really good, really nice. I appreciate his calling.

Context on Trump’s claims that he is working with the FDA and companies are ready to assist London:

In the week beginning 30 March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided hydroxychloroquine with an “emergency use authorization” to use on coronavirus patients in some circumstances. State officials in New York have said that about 4,000 seriously ill patients are now being treated with the drug.

Trump says Fema and HHS have distributed 11.7m N95 respirators and emphasizes that this is a large number. He is now praising the private companies, including Apple and Salesforce, that have been donating supplies and helping states.

Trump says the governors “are extremely happy with what we are doing”. He also said social distancing is working and is again striking an optimistic tone about hospital beds, saying, “We’ll see whether or not our original projects are right.” Officials have warned that this might be one of the worst weeks yet for the Covid-19 outbreak in the US.

Trump also said he asked drug companies to “contact London” regarding Boris Johnon to see “if we can be of help”. The specifics of these conversations were unclear.

Trump said he is praying for Boris Johnson, the UK prime minster now in intensive care with coronavirus: “We are working with London with respect to Boris Johnson.”

He’s been a really good friend. He doesn’t give up...

We’ve contacted all of Boris’ doctors. ...When you get brought into intensive care, that gets ver very serious.”

Trump’s briefing has begun. Dr Anthony Fauci is present. Follow along for updates.

Michael Che of SNL has lost his grandmother to coronavirus, according to an Instagram post

Michael Che took to Instagram to reveal that his grandmother died due to complications from the novel coronavirus: "I'm obviously very hurt and angry that she had to go through all that pain alone" https://t.co/r7gGZVpQaa

On Instagram, SNL’s Michael Che writes about losing his grandmother to coronavirus: pic.twitter.com/Ve3LLgmJd4

From the Guardian’s global coronavirus blog, the British pound has dropped against the US dollar following news that the UK’s prime minister had been moved into intensive care:

The pound had been trading higher against the dollar and the euro, but fell sharply on the announcement. Sterling was down 0.3% against the dollar to $1.2229 and down 0.1% against the euro to €1.1326 shortly afterwards.

Trump says the briefing will begin in 15 minutes:

White House news conference at 5:45 P.M. Eastern. Thank you!

While we wait for Trump’s briefing to begin, my colleague Abené Clayton in Oakland has this report on the push for California’s prisons to release older people and others at risk of death behind bars due to Covid-19:

Last week the CDCR fast-tracked the release of 3496 people, but many worry that that step won't be enough to keep thousands of aging and medically vulnerable incarcerated folks safe from Covid-19.

My latest for @GuardianUS https://t.co/6MkNIgmh01

Alicia Rhoden’s husband, Bruce Wayne Rhoden, has been in Wasco state prison for about a month. In addition to his age, Bruce has a bevy of pre-existing conditions, including diabetes and HIV, that make him vulnerable to severe illness and death if infected with the coronavirus. Alicia, who’s 60 and has epilepsy, says she’s frightened that her husband will become ill while in prison and she won’t know until it’s too late.

“My husband is 61 and his health isn’t good at all,” Alicia Rhoden, a Los Angeles resident, said. “My fear is that he can die in prison because of his medical conditions.”

Related: 'He could die': California urged to release older prisoners amid coronavirus

More here on the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 in black communities in the US:

More than half of Chicago's confirmed coronavirus patients are African American, despite Black residents making up just 30% of the city's population, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says https://t.co/kST8dnvGFN

Chicago is launching a health campaign focused on the city’s black and brown communities, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday following a media report highlighting the disproportionate number of black residents among those who have died of COVID-19 complications in the city.

Lightfoot called WBEZ’s finding that 70% of recorded deaths due to the coronavirus in the city were black residents “devastating”, adding, “And knowing they’re not just numbers, they’ve lives. There’s families and communities that have been shattered.”

Joe Biden has reportedly talked to Trump about Covid-19, according to an NBC News reporter:

NEWS: @JoeBiden spoke today with @realDonaldTrump about the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a source with knowledge of the call tells NBC News.

Hi all - Sam Levin in Los Angeles taking over blog coverage for the rest of the day. Trump’s daily briefing is scheduled to start in half an hour, we’ll be covering it live with fact checks.

The Pentagon has just announced that it is sending a total of 1,500 medical personnel to New York City this week.

Pentagon: 1,500 medical personnel will be on the ground in NYC “this week,” spokesman says

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Sam Levin, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

The Dow closed up about 1,600 points, even as health exerpts warned this could be the country’s worst week yet since the coronavirus crisis started.

The Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all closed up more than 7% as some coronavirus projections showed improvement.

The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports on the latest from California:

With the number of hospitalizations for coronavirus in California rising 5.6% over the weekend, the state is loaning 500 state-owned ventilators to the strategic national stockpile inventory, the governor announced Monday.

Early evidence suggests African Americans are disproportionately dying from coronavirus.

Michigan has confirmed 617 coronavirus deaths, and 41% of patients who died were black, even though African Americans make up only 14% of the state’s population.

110 new deaths from #COVID19 in Michigan.

The death rate among confirmed cases is now 4.2%.

41% of deaths are African Americans. They make up 14% of Michigan's population

193 deaths in Detroit (29% of total cases; 26.5% of deaths)

185 in Oakland

153 in suburban Wayne County pic.twitter.com/jZ0U731Vj4

1/ The District’s reported data for Sunday, April 5, 2020 includes 99 new positive coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, bringing DC's overall positive case total to 1097. pic.twitter.com/cBoscmuK6l

The Guardian’s global coronavirus blog has more details on British prime minister Boris Johnson’s move to intensive care:

It is understood Johnson was moved to the intensive care unit just short of an hour and a half ago.

The decision was made by his medical team after his condition worsened over the course of Monday. The prime minister is understood to be conscious and to have been moved as a precaution in case he needs ventilation.

Related: Coronavirus: Boris Johnson taken into intensive care – live updates

British prime minister Boris Johnson has been taken into intensive care as he battles coronavirus.

BREAK: @BorisJohnson in intensive care. pic.twitter.com/lH3yuV4KMI

Related: Boris Johnson remains in hospital after 'comfortable night'

The global coronavirus death toll has now surpassed 70,000, with Italy and Spain accounting for about 30,000 of the deaths.

In comparison, the US death toll surpassed 10,000 earlier today, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins.

Related: Coronavirus live news: Italy reports lowest day-to-day rise in infections in a week

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said lawmakers will need to return to the Capitol “relatively soon” to begin working on another coronavirus bill.

“We are definitely going to need to do a COVID-4,” the New York Democrat said. “The problem may be of even greater magnitude than people thought a few weeks ago.”

A New York councilman said temporary burials in parks was only being considered as a contingency plan, as the city’s morgues near full capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Councilman Mark Levine previously tweeted the city was considering “temporary internment,” but he later added the plan will not be necessary if the death rate drops.

This tweet has gotten a lot of attention. So I want to clarify: the is a contingency NYC is preparing for BUT if the death rate drops enough it will not be necessary. https://t.co/6wLO8qWtML

Wisconsin’s Republican leaders in the state legislature said they would file a lawsuit over governor Tony Evers’ executive order to cancel in-person voting for the presidential primary tomorrow.

Joint Statement with @SenFitzgerald: We are immediately challenging this executive order in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/76QItl3qxE

Wisconsin governor Tony Evers said that he considered it a moral responsibility to cancel in-person voting for the state’s presidential primary tomorrow.

“Frankly, there’s no good answer to this problem—I wish it were easy,” Evers said in a statement. “I have been asking everyone to do their part to help keep our families, our neighbors, and our communities safe, and I had hoped that the Legislature would do its part—just as the rest of us are—to help keep people healthy and safe.”

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

Wisconsin governor Tony Evers called off in-person voting less than 24 hours before polls were set to open for the state’s presidential primary.

.@GovEvers makes the move, suspending in-person voting for #Wisconsin on Tuesday. We’re following today’s #BreakingNews all day long on @SpectrumNews1WI pic.twitter.com/SLaSxzsXn9

The coronavirus death toll in the United States has now surpassed 10,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins.

According to the university’s data, the US has recorded 10,335 deaths in connection to the pandemic. That is up from 846 just 12 days ago.

Reported US coronavirus deaths via @CNN:

12 days ago: 846 deaths
10 days ago: 1,451 deaths
8 days ago: 2,314 deaths
6 days ago: 3,538 deaths
4 days ago: 5,316 deaths
2 days ago: 7,826 deaths
Right now: 10,335 deaths

Related: US surgeon general warns of 'Pearl Harbor moment' as Americans face 'hardest week'

Acting navy secretary Thomas Modly defended his attack on Captain Brett Crozier, the former commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt who was removed from his post after his letter warning about coronavirus was made public.

NEW: Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly says, “I stand by every word,” after reportedly calling Captain Crozier "too naive or too stupid” to be in command. pic.twitter.com/Qcbf3JQKqb

A Democratic senator criticized the acting Navy secretary for lashing out against Captain Brett Crozier in a speech to the captain’s former crew.

Secretary Modly delivering a speech on board a U.S. aircraft carrier suggesting Captain Crozier might be “stupid” and bashing the media for trying to report the truth is completely inappropriate. Our dedicated sailors deserve better from their leadership. https://t.co/EKYUI6onZu

Here’s where the day stands so far:

House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced new guidelines to “reduce the physical presence of Members and staff in the Capitol.”

“Beginning Tuesday, staff must electronically submit all Floor documents – including bills, resolutions, co-sponsors and extensions of remarks – to a dedicated and secure email system, rather than deliver these materials by hand to staff in the Speaker’s Lobby or Cloakrooms,” Pelosi said in a “Dear Colleague” letter.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo just wrapped up his daily briefing on the state’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

Here’s some of what he said:

Melissa DeRosa, secretary to New York governor Andrew Cuomo, said the state is working with Google to help break the logjam causing issues with filing unemployment claims.

DeRosa ackowledged residents’ frustration with the website glitches but asked for patient because of the number of claims trying to be filed.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the “stay at home” order needs to be enforced more strictly, after being asked about reports of Orthdox Jewish communities ignoring the social distancing restrictions to hold funerals.

“I don’t care if you’re Orthdox Jewish, Catholic, Christian Muslim,” Cuomo said. “It’s the job of local government to enforce.”

Today I am increasing the maximum fine for violations of state-mandated social distancing rules from $500 to $1000.

This is an enemy we have underestimated since day one.

This is not the time to be lax. We need to #StayHome and stay properly distanced.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo expressed surprise at New York City officials saying some bodies of coronavirus patients may need to be buried in parks because morgues are overwhelmed.

“I haven’t heard anything about the city burying people in parks,” Cuomo said. “I haven’t heard that there’s an issue.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo mourned the nearly 5,000 New Yorkers who have already died as a result of coronavirus.

But Cuomo celebrated the work of the state’s healthcare system, saying no one has died as a result of lack of access to medical equipment or staff.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced he was extending the state’s stay at home order until at least April 29.

The state’s schools and non-essential businesses will remain closed for at least another three weeks.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he is going to call Trump and ask him to start allowing the Navy hospital ship Comfort to begin receiving coronavirus patients.

The Comfort arrived in New York Harbor last week, and the original plan was to have the hospital ship receive non-coronavirus patients.

New York officials said the state may be at the apex, or the beginning of the apex, of its coronavirus crisis.

But governor Andrew Cuomo warned that this potential development is not all good news because the state’s healthcare system is stretched to a breaking point.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo is holding his daily briefing on the state’s response to coronavirus as hospitals there deal with a surge in cases.

Cuomo said New York has now confirmed 130,869 cases of coronavirus and recorded 4,758 deaths linked to the virus.

The Federal Communications Commission will not act on a request to investigate networks that air the White House coronavirus briefings, the agency’s chief of staff said in a tweet.

BREAKING: The FCC's answer to an "emergency petition" asking us to investigate broadcasters airing White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings? No. We believe in the First Amendment.

Trump mocked Joe Biden for saying the Democratic convention may have to be “virtual” to avoid spreading coronavirus during the event.

Joe Biden tells @GStephanopoulos that holding the Democratic convention is “necessary,” but Democrats “may have to do a “virtual” convention amid the COVID-19 threat.

“We may not be able to put 10, 20, 30,000 people in one place and that’s very possible.” https://t.co/IWEd5ppDTB pic.twitter.com/fZUTavPNZN

California is donating 500 ventilators to the Strategic National Stockpile to help states like New York confront a surge in coronavirus cases.

“California is stepping up to help our fellow Americans in New York and across the country who are being impacted the hardest right now by the COVID-19 pandemic,” California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The acting Navy secretary lambasted Captain Brett Crozier, whose concerns about coronavirus were made public last week, in a speech to Crozier’s former crew.

According to a trasncript obtained by CNN, acting Navy secetary Thomas Modly said Crozier was either “too naive or too stupid” if he didn’t think the letter warning about a coronavirus outbreak would be made public.

The small business loan program created by the stimulus package has processed $38 billion in loans since launching Friday, Larry Kudlow told CNBC this morning.

“So far, it’s a good start for a monumental task,” NEC Director Larry Kudlow says about the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis and the rollout of the $350 billion small business relief program. https://t.co/Nzo8qqEdxH pic.twitter.com/GzkvkStJW8

New York will start temporarily burying bodies in parks as the city grapples with overrun morgues because of the coroanvirus crisis, city councilman Mark Levine said.

Soon we'll start “temporary interment”. This likely will be done by using a NYC park for burials (yes you read that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line.

It will be done in a dignified, orderly--and temporary--manner. But it will be tough for NYers to take. 9/

Early on in this crisis we were able to swab people who died at home, and thus got a coronavirus reading. But those days are long gone. We simply don't have the testing capacity for the large numbers dying at home. 6/

A Washington Post investigation showed the Trump administration missed key opportunities to prepare for the coronavirus crisis.

The Post reports:

The failure has echoes of the period leading up to 9/11: Warnings were sounded, including at the highest levels of government, but the president was deaf to them until the enemy had already struck.

The Trump administration received its first formal notification of the outbreak of the coronavirus in China on Jan. 3. Within days, U.S. spy agencies were signaling the seriousness of the threat to Trump by including a warning about the coronavirus — the first of many — in the President’s Daily Brief.

As America braces for the worst week of the coronavirus crisis yet, experts say there is one bit of good news.

A projection on the pandemic shows the estmated number of overall deaths in the US has declined since last week.

The University of Washington model, one of several cited by U.S. and some state officials, now projects U.S. deaths at 81,766 by Aug. 4, down about 12,000 from a projection over the weekend.

The model, which is frequently updated with new data, projects the peak need for hospital beds on April 15 and for daily deaths at 3,130 on April 16.

Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade adviser who has been tapped to oversee the administration’s implementation of the Defense Production Act amid the coronavirus crisis, got into a heated exchange over using an anti-malaria drug to fight the virus.

.@JohnBerman: “Do you have reason to doubt the analysis of Dr. Anthony Fauci?”
Top trade adviser Peter Navarro: “I agree with the analysis of Dr. Fauci in this sense, we don’t have definitive 100% science to say that [hydroxychloroquine] absolutely works”https://t.co/4DJ7zfTV6y pic.twitter.com/yrvYjAL5R2

Trump defended the decision to allow cruise ships carrying passengers who have coronavirus to dock in Florida.

“For humanitarian reasons, the passengers from the two CoronaVirus stricken cruise ships have been given medical treatment and, when appropriate, allowed to disembark, under strict supervision,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Very carefully done. People we’re dying & no other countries would allow them to dock!”

Related: Cruise ship docks in Florida with two dead and 12 testing positive for coronavirus

Good morning, live blog readers!

Donald Trump was expressing optimism over Twitter this morning, telling his followers that there is a “light at the end of the tunnel” as the country stares down the worst week yet in the coronavirus crisis.

Related: Coronavirus map of the US: latest cases state by state

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