US urges new advice in virus crisis
Trump now says pandemic may cause recession
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 meant 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 for half a month, 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.
“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, in an appearance in the White House briefing room, when asked when the pandemic would subside, said that “if we do a really good job” the crisis could pass by the height of summer. 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 the pandemic was “not under control” in the United States or globally but said he did not yet plan to call for domestic travel restrictions and said he was reluctant to advise states to cancel the primary elections ahead.
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.
Millions of Americans spent Monday holed up at home against the coronavirus, with many of them thrown out of work until further notice, as authorities tightened the epic clampdown and the list of businesses forced to close across the U.S. extended to restaurants, bars, gyms and casinos.
The rapid work stoppage had Americans fretting about their jobs and their savings and threatened to overwhelm unemployment benefit programs.
Congress convened to try to finish an aid package and consider another one behind it. The Supreme Court postponed oral arguments for the first time in over a century. And the U.S. Surgeon General said 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,” Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams told Fox News.
Two weeks ago, Italy had 1,700 cases of coronavirus and had reported 34 deaths. Now, Italy is reporting more than 27,000 cases and more than 2,100 deaths. About 4,300 cases have been reported in the United States and so far, with at least 78 deaths, most in hard-hit Washington state. Although the numbers may not be directly comparable, the trajectory is, as Adams sees it.
Adams asserted 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.
Officials in six San Francisco Bay Area counties issued a “shelter-in-place” order affecting nearly 7 million people, requiring most residents to stay inside and venture out only for food, medicine or exercise for three weeks — the most drastic measure taken yet in the U.S. to curb the spread of the virus.
About 82 million people, or three-fifths of the U.S. workforce, are hourly employees. Many won’t get paid if they don’t work. For those in a category that includes restaurant, hotel, amusement park, and casino workers, just one-third have access to paid sick leave, according to Wells Fargo.
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. It went into recess before adopting the measure, however.
The worldwide outbreak has sickened more than 181,000 people and killed more than 7,100.