Coronavirus pandemic in the US

President Trump announced a "blueprint" to set guidance on how states should handle coronavirus, distinguishing the roles between states and the federal government.

"We are continuing to rapidly expand our capacity and confident that we have enough testing to begin reopening and the reopening process. We want to get our country open. And the testing is not going to be a problem at all. In fact it's going to be one of the great assets that we have," he said.

Trump added: "Today we releasing additional guidance on testing to inform the states as they develop their plans for a phased and very safe reopening. Our blueprint describes how states should unlock their full capacity, expand the number of testing, establish monitoring systems to detect local outbreaks on the testing platform, and conduct contact tracing. We have it all."

A White House official told CNN the goal was to help each state reach the ability to test at least 2% of its residents, with a particular focus on vulnerable populations and emergency workers.

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There has been at least 983,848 coronavirus cases in the US, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. At least 55,735 people have died from the virus.

On Monday, Johns Hopkins reported 18,063 new cases and 854 reported deaths. 

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.

President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and members of the coronavirus task force briefed the nation's governors Monday afternoon on a new testing blueprint. 

According to audio of the call obtained by CNN, Trump said the US has now completed 5.4 million tests and the number of tests being performed each day has "began to skyrocket," citing more than 200,000 tests performed last Wednesday. He praised governors who have implemented testing strategies and contracted with the public and private sector to get what they need. 

Trump noted newly-released funding for the Paycheck Protection Program. 

He then told the governors that as long as they continue to combat the virus with "unity, strength and resolve" – “for the most part… not in all cases but for the most part we have" — that the US would get "safely and confidently back to work."

Trump turned the call over to Pence, who said that Monday's blueprint announcement is a "continuation" of the April 16 phased reopening guidelines. 

"It is science-based and, hopefully, will give you great confidence going forward," Pence said, noting that the task force believes there is currently the testing capacity for every state to meet the testing criteria for phase one. 

“We’ve seen a rapid expansion of testing," Pence said. 

Carnival Cruise Line is using its own cruise ships in North America to transport crew members home to ports in Asia, Europe and Latin America during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a statement from the cruise line.

According to statistics released by Miami’s US Coast Guard 7th District last week, 87 cruise ships with nearly 65,000 crew members were in the district’s area of responsibility, which includes the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

Carnival did not provide CNN with the total number of crew members who are currently sailing home.

“As the company moves to safe operational manning levels during our pause in operations, we have begun the process of returning healthy crew members to their home countries throughout the world utilizing some of our fleet as transport given the limited number of commercial flights and charter options," the statement said.

The Carnival Ecstasy cruise ship left Jacksonville, Florida, this weekend and was headed to India, according to a US Customs and Border Protection Instagram post.

According to Carnival, the cruise line’s “27 ships have been docked at homeports or anchored at sea since mid-March with no guests on board, only crew members.”

New Hampshire Health and Human Services will open five new coronavirus testing centers across the state, Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday. 

The new centers will be located in Claremont, Lancaster, Plymouth, Tamworth, and Rochester.

The state aims to provide testing for all residents with symptoms. Officials encouraged residents with even mild symptoms to seek testing, New Hampshire Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette said. 

These locations will require a referral from an insurance provider and are intended for residents who are unable to access hospital-based clinics.

The new testing centers will be staffed eight hours a day, seven days a week by the National Guard and the Metropolitan Medical Response System, Sununu said. 

New Hampshire has tested at least 18,200 people, Shibinette said.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said it is “an embarrassment" that the city has to find its own kits and processing facilities and laboratories.

Garcetti told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he believes the federal government should be securing supplies and spaces to test for coronavirus.

“We need probably double the amount of testing before we can begin to think about reopening,” Garcetti said.

He said some spaces and places in Los Angeles will begin to reopen once the current stay-at-home order ends on May 15.

Garcetti said three elements will be key to reopening: the economic and psychological need, the risk of reopening and how to reopen safely.

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The coronavirus pandemic may be putting stress on some of the relationships in our lives. This is especially true for families quarantining together.

A relationship expert joins this week’s coronavirus town hall to answer your questions about navigating relationships during the lock down. What questions do you have?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said today there would likely be more money approved for state and local government relief in the next legislative package Congress passes to address the coronavirus outbreak.  

That’s a shift in the messaging for McConnell who last week said he wasn’t sure if more money was needed and indicated he was reluctant to provide billions to some state governments he believes have mismanaged their debt.  

Getting funding to state and local governments has been a key priority for Democrats and many Republicans.

The GOP leader also defended his remarks last week that laws should be changed so states can declare bankruptcy to help the shed some of their debt.  

“I wasn’t saying they had to take bankruptcy. I think it’s just an option to be looked at that unfortunately states don’t have that option now, cities do," McConnell said.

"I wasn’t necessarily recommending it. I was pointing out they have their own fiscal problems that predate the coronavirus and I was not interested in borrowing money from future generations to fix age old problems that states have unrelated to the virus,” he added.

The White House said the federal government should act as the "supplier of last resort" for coronavirus tests as it works with states to ramp up a testing regime that health experts say is necessary before a national reopening.

In a new set of documents, which President Trump plans to unveil during an early evening press briefing, the administration will offer a blueprint laying out where it sees the boundaries between federal and state responsibilities.

A White House official said the goal was to help each state reach the ability to test at least 2% of its residents, with a particular focus on vulnerable populations and emergency workers.

The documents will also lay out what the administration has done so far to ramp up testing, including strengthening the US supply chain for supplies and testing kits.

Trump has come under withering scrutiny for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, particularly testing missteps early on that hampered the country's ability to detect outbreaks.

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