Remain home, avoid crowds, U.S. advises

WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday urged all older Americans to stay home and everyone to avoid crowds and eating out at restaurants as part of sweeping guidelines intended to combat an expected surge of coronavirus cases.

President Donald Trump, in a marked shift in tone about a crisis that has enveloped the globe, for the first time acknowledged that the pandemic may send the U.S. economy into a recession and suggested that the nation may be dealing with the virus until “July or August.”

The guidelines, which would rewrite the norms of American society, were released as the U.S. government tried to blunt the impact of an expected surge of coronavirus cases, racing to bolster testing and aid even as the financial markets tumbled.

Among the new recommendations: Over the next 15 days, Americans should not gather in groups of more than 10 people, schooling should be at home, and discretionary travel and social visits should

be avoided. If anyone in a household tests positive for the virus, everyone who lives there should stay home. The administration did not define what an older American was in terms of the recommendation to stay home.

“It isn’t an overreaction,” Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the president’s coronavirus task force, said of the recommendations released Monday.

“We will rally together as one nation, and we will defeat the virus,” Trump said. “We can turn the corner and turn it quickly.”

The president also said he is not planning a nationwide curfew, despite earlier reports that the administration may implement it.

“We haven’t really determined to do that at all and hopefully we won’t have to,” Trump said. “It’s a step we can take but hopefully we won’t.”

When asked when the pandemic would subside, Trump said “if we do a really good job,” the crisis could pass by the height of summer.

“People are talking about July, August, something like that … could be longer than that,” Trump said.

That was a far less optimistic take than in his earlier predictions that it could be over within weeks. He also acknowledged that the virus, which has battered the global markets, may send the nation’s economy into a recession, a potentially brutal blow for an incumbent in an election year.

Trump was unusually somber about the matter after playing it down for weeks. He acknowledged that the pandemic is “not under control” in the United States or globally.

Without providing details, he said “we’re going to back the airlines 100%,” a note of reassurance for an industry crippled by travel bans and fears of spreading the virus.

Trump also said he was reluctant to advise states to cancel the primary elections ahead.

Ohio Health Director Amy Acton declared a health emergency, calling off the state’s presidential primary out of fear of exposing voters and volunteer poll workers — many of them elderly — to the virus.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine earlier Monday was unsuccessful in his attempt to get a judge to halt the primary. The governor had contended the election results wouldn’t be viewed as legitimate in light of the pandemic.

Arizona, Florida and Illinois were proceeding with their presidential primaries.

HOUSE RESOLUTION

On Capitol Hill, a nearly empty House met to adopt a resolution to make what were described as technical changes to polish off a coronavirus response measure designed to speed testing for the virus and provide sick leave to workers kept home because of it. The House went into recess before adopting the measure, however.

The measure is likely to pass in the Senate this week, though the timing is uncertain. The 100 senators, with a few exceptions, were expected to gather Monday evening, despite the federal public-health guidelines prohibiting large gatherings.

Talks are underway on another bill to blunt the damage that the virus is doing to the economy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it will focus on direct financial help to individuals, help for businesses such as the airline industry, and further steps to support the health system.

Democrats said at least $750 billion would be needed.

“We will need big, bold, urgent federal action to deal with this crisis,” Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said Monday.

Republicans often reluctant to spend federal dollars did not flinch at the head-spinning number, as a roster of America’s big and small industries — airlines, hotels, retailers — lined up for aid.

McConnell said he wants a “comprehensive” approach with “significant steps” for the economy, particularly Main Street businesses. He opened the Senate on Monday with a message to Americans: “The Senate stands with you.”

The rush to inject cash and resources into the economy is an effort unlike any since the 2008 economic crisis, with political and economic interventions and eye-popping sums to try to protect Americans from the health and financial fallout.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called for sending $1,000 to every American.

Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, said the White House is working toward $800 billion in fiscal relief, with about half of that having been approved through executive actions and legislation, and much of the remainder being sought through a payroll tax cut that has been met coolly by both parties in Congress.

The Federal Reserve said Sunday that it was taking emergency action to slash its benchmark interest rate to near zero. But the Fed’s move did not calm markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Monday down nearly 3,000 points.

In a letter to Trump and congressional leaders, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for swift legislation, including a three-month cancellation of some taxes and an expansion of loans to businesses to “mitigate the potentially devastating economic effects.”

Governors in a number of states said they are growing alarmed by the widening economic damage and effect on workers. Some announced changes to make it easier for people to collect unemployment benefits. Others accelerated programs to make loans available to small businesses.

Also on Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court said it is postponing arguments for late March and early April because of the coronavirus, including a round over subpoenas for Trump’s financial records. The last time oral arguments were postponed was in 1918, due to the Spanish flu epidemic. In 2001, they were relocated, but not postponed, after an anthrax scare.

ITALY COMPARISON

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said Monday that the United States is about where Italy was two weeks ago in the coronavirus struggle, a sign that infections are expected to rise.

“When you look at the projections, there’s every chance that we could be Italy,” Adams told Fox News. Yet, he said, the U.S. has opportunities to mitigate the pandemic.

Two weeks ago, Italy had 1,700 cases of coronavirus and had reported 34 deaths. Now, Italy is reporting an estimated 25,000 cases and more than 1,800 deaths. About 3,800 cases have been reported in the United States and so far, more than 65 people have died from coronavirus. Although the numbers may not be directly comparable, the trajectory is, as Adams sees it.

On Fox News, Adams claimed that the U.S. has “turned the tide” on testing, a critical part of tracking and containing pandemics, but whether that is true remains to be seen. The U.S. effort has been hobbled by a series of missteps, including flaws with the testing kits first distributed by the federal government and bureaucratic hurdles that held up testing by private laboratories.

In Seattle, four healthy volunteers became the first participants in a clinical trial of an experimental vaccine against the virus, receiving shots at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Washington state. But officials cautioned that it will take a year to 18 months to fully test and approve any vaccine.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three weeks to six weeks to recover.

The worldwide outbreak has sickened more than 180,000 people and killed more than 7,100.

DISINFORMATION EFFORT

The administration also alleged that a foreign disinformation campaign was underway aimed at spreading fear among Americans already spooked by the pandemic.

On Sunday, federal officials began confronting what they said was a deliberate effort by a foreign entity to make Americans think the government was going to impose a nationwide quarantine. Agencies took coordinated action Sunday evening to assure Americans that the government was not planning to do that.

And on Monday, national security officials said there had been a cyberattack involving the computer networks of Health and Human Services, but the networks were operating normally. They didn’t detail the nature or scope of the problem or identify the foreign entity.

It was unclear if the disinformation effort was related to administration officials’ complaints in recent days that China was spreading misinformation about the U.S.

Last week, the Pentagon accused the Chinese government of promulgating “false & absurd conspiracy theories about the origin of covid-19 blaming U.S. service members.”

At the news briefing Monday, Trump said it could be that there are some foreign entities “playing games.” But he said it didn’t matter because he was not ordering a nationwide lockdown. “At this point, not nationwide,” he said. He said there were no domestic travel restrictions, but “we’re talking about it every day.”

Trump in recent days has imposed sweeping travel restrictions for much of Europe. On Saturday, he added Britain and Ireland to a list of countries facing travel restrictions over the next 30 days. The State Department on Sunday said it would allow U.S. personnel to leave diplomatic or consular posts worldwide if they or family members were medically determined to be at a higher risk of falling very ill if exposed to the virus. Information for this article. was contributed by Jonathan Lemire, Andrew Taylor, Jill Colvin, Zeke Miller, Aamer Madhani, Hope Yen, Darlene Superville, Deb Riechmann, Mary Clare Jalonick, Matthew Daly, Kevin Freking, Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Lauran Neergaard, Carla K. Johnson, Christopher Rugaber, Tim Sullivan, Julie Watson, Philip Marcelo, Ted Warren, Mike Schneider and staff members of The Associated Press; by Siobhan O’Grady, Teo Armus, Rick Noack, Kim Bellware, Katie Mettler and Lateshia Beachum of The Washington Post; and by Ryan Teague Beckwith, Mark Niquette, Jennifer Epstein and Brenna Goth of Bloomberg News.