Coronavirus pandemic in the US

San Francisco needs to increase testing by two to three times the current rate before the city can relax the current health orders, Public Health Officer Dr. Grant Colfax said at a news conference Monday. 

San Francisco has tested a total of 15,610 people, according to the city's Covid-19 data tracker. At least 1,424 people tested positive.

Colfax also said the city cannot return to normalcy until there is a sustained decline in the number of people hospitalized. 

"We need numbers to start dropping significantly and just stay down for several weeks," Colfax said. "That could happen if we continue on our current course." 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday the state's shelter-in-place remains in effect until April 30.

Some businesses, including hair and nail salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys, were allowed to reopen on last Friday. Restaurants and movie theaters were allowed to open Monday.

The governor said a team continues to monitor state data and guidance from the White House and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We're going to be making some decisions, most likely in the next couple of days, of what the next week, two weeks or month looks like based on that data," Kemp said.

President Trump said he “never even thought” of changing the date of the upcoming presidential election on November 3, despite former Vice President Biden suggesting Trump would attempt a delay.

Trump also added that Biden never said he would try to delay the election — despite Biden saying those words exactly during a virtual fundraiser last week, according to a pool report.

"Mark my words: I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can't be held," Biden said on the call.

Trump cannot unilaterally change the date of the election in November, as it has been set into law by federal statute and Congress would have to approve such a move. 

However, that has not stopped some Democrats from worrying that he will try to do so, and voters asked the previously large field of Democratic presidential candidates if they had concerns that Trump would try to delay the election or refuse to leave office if he were defeated in November.

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Face masks will be required for flight attendants during every mainline and regional flight starting May 1, American Airlines said in a statement Monday.

The airline will also begin distributing personal protective equipment, including sanitizing wipes or gels and a face mask to customers in early May “as supplies and operational conditions allow.”

The Los Angeles Lakers received and repaid an approximately $4.6 million Payroll Protection Program loan, a source told CNN.

The L.A. Lakers qualify as a small business because the organization only has 303 part-time and full-time employees. 

The organization repaid the loan "within days" of receiving it after realizing that the government's funds had been depleted.

A source told CNN the team is not planning to furlough or lay off any of its employees and that its top executives agreed to defer 20% of their salaries to ensure team employees could be paid.  

The Lakers have contributed to a fund, along with the L.A. Clippers and L.A. Kings, to provide financial support to employees of the Staples Center. Last week the Lakers joined other Los Angeles area professional sports teams to create "Teams for LA" to benefit the Mayor's Fund for Los Angeles.

President Trump was asked about his retweet of someone who claimed Democrats had inflated the coronavirus mortality rate, deflecting from addressing the actual claim by suggesting China was not accurately reporting coronavirus infection numbers.

“Do you believe that’s true, that there’s some sort of conspiracy theory regarding the number of infections states are reporting?” a reporter at Monday’s Rose Garden news conference asked.

Trump replied, “Well I can only say what we’re doing. We’re reporting very accurately.”

“If you look at other countries, other countries are not. You could look at China. You could look at numerous countries where I don’t think those are right numbers. I can only say what we’re doing. It’s very important to us to accurate reporting. And that’s what we’re doing,” he added.

CNN’s Daniel Dale has fact-checked the claim in Trump’s retweet.

The tweet alleged that people had tried to oust Trump through illegitimate means before the pandemic, then added: "Do you really think these lunatics wouldn't inflate the mortality rates by underreporting the infection rates in an attempt to steal the election?"

However, there is no basis for the suggestion that Trump opponents are inflating the coronavirus mortality rate to try to "steal the election." 

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President Trump says he takes no responsibility for a spike in people using disinfectants improperly after he suggested ingesting disinfectant as a cure for coronavirus last week.

When asked about the increase, Trump said, "I can't imagine why."

He answered, “No, I don’t" when asked if he takes any responsibility for the numbers.

Some context: Trump asked his medical team to look into the possibility of using disinfectants as a way to cure the virus inside the body during a coronavirus briefing last Thursday.

He has since claimed that the comments were “sarcastic.”

As CNN has previously reported, Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday his state experienced hundreds of calls from people across Maryland asking whether injecting or ingesting disinfectants was an effective way to combat coronavirus.

“I think it is critical that the President of the United States, when people are really scared and in the middle of this worldwide pandemic, that in these press conferences, that we really get the facts out there,” he told Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation on Sunday.

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President Trump described governors as “as thrilled as they can be” over the administration's response to the coronavirus, hours after a meeting with state leaders on Monday.

“It could have been stopped,” Trump added, “and it could've been stopped short, but somebody a long time ago it seems decided not to do it that way, and the whole world is suffering because of it, 184 countries at least.”

The President has made similar statements about the Chinese government’s response to the virus at briefings in recent weeks.

Trump added that his administration “has encouraged the governors to leverage unused testing capacity in states.”

“Very few understood that we have tremendous capacity,” he said adding that the administration, “provided each governor with a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of the labs where they could find additional testing capacity in their states."

President Trump defended Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who downplayed the impact of coronavirus in the early stages of the pandemic.

“I think it’s a very unfair question because you have many great professionals, some of them you have great respect for, and you have many people in the other party… that have said the same thing and with even more confidence,” Trump said when asked about Azar's role. “So a lot of people didn’t get that right."

Trump's comments come after Trump denied in a tweet Sunday he was about to fire Azar.

He wrote in the tweet, “Reports that H.H.S. Secretary @AlexAzar is going to be ‘fired’ by me” are false.

A senior administration official told CNN Saturday evening that White House officials were discussing plans to replace Azar following a spate of criticism of the early response to the coronavirus outbreak.

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