March 24 coronavirus news

President Trump said he wants the nation "opened up and just raring to go by Easter," a date just over two weeks away that few health experts believe will be sufficient in containing the spread of coronavirus.

Speaking during a Fox News town hall, Trump reiterated he was eager to see the nation return to normal, even as doctors warn the nation will see a massive spike in cases if Americans return to crowded workplaces or events.

Despite announcing the new guidelines under the banner "The President's Coronavirus Guidelines for America," Trump seemed to distance himself from the practices during the town hall.

"Somehow, the word got out that this is the thing we are supposed to be doing," he said, noting the country had "never done a thing like this before." 

"But we had to do it. It's been very painful for our country and very destabilizing," he said.

As his advisers prepare options for returning the country to work, Trump suggested that Americans would still be able to exercise good health practices while still returning to normal.

"We have to go back to work much sooner than people thought. People can go back to work and they can also pass it on my practice good judgment," he said.

Trump again compared coronavirus to the flu and auto accidents, despite warnings from his health advisers that such analogies make little sense.

"We lose thousands and thousands of people to the flu. We don’t turn the country off," he said, adding: "We lose much more than that to automobile accidents."

Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci said comparing coronavirus to auto accidents was a "false equivalency" and said it was important to "face the fact" that coronavirus is more lethal than the flu.

The UK government has launched a new volunteer program to support the country's National Health Service (NHS) and medical professionals on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Tuesday during a news briefing at Downing Street. 

"The NHS Volunteer Responders is a new scheme set up so that people can come and help to make sure the NHS, and local services that are needed, get all the support they need," Hancock said. 

Following an earlier call by the government for retired healthcare professionals to return to the NHS, Hancock confirmed that more than 10,000 people have so far responded and agreed to rejoin the health service. 

Republican senators told CNN that President Trump should listen to medical professionals before opening up economy.

Here's what they're saying:

Athletes from around the world reacted Tuesday with a mixture of relief, sadness and goodwill to the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Olympics have never been delayed in their 124-year modern history, though they were canceled altogether in 1916, 1940 and 1944 during World War I and World War II.

Here's how athletes are reacting:

Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency shipped 2,000 ventilators from the national stockpile to New York state earlier Tuesday with another shipment of 2,000 ventilators expected Wednesday.

Pence said earlier during the town hall that the national stockpile “has some 20,000 ventilators,” and that the hardest-hit American communities had been prioritized. 

What this is about: At a news conference today, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state has procured 7,000 ventilators but needs an additional 30,000 for coronavirus treatment.

President Trump said during Tuesday’s virtual town hall on Fox News that he “canceled” a stimulus deal with Democrats last night.

“I canceled the deal last night. I said I’m not going to sign that deal because (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi came in and put a lot of things in the deal that had nothing to do with the workers, that had to do with an agenda that they’ve been trying to get passed for 10 years,” Trump said in the Rose Garden of the White House. “I told … a lot of people there’s no way I’m signing that deal.”

The President said Republican Sens. John Kennedy, Ben Sasse and Lindsey Graham also spoke to him to advise him not to get onboard with the deal.

“All of the sudden they start throwing all of the little Green New Deal stuff in,” Trump said of Democrats’ additions to the stimulus proposal. He said they wanted assurances on what board rooms would look like, on green energy, windmills and oil.

More context: After another marathon day of negotiations, Congress failed to make a deal Monday to pass a massive stimulus package to respond to the economic fallout of the coronavirus. But leaders emerged from late-night meetings in the Capitol optimistic that a deal could be struck Tuesday despite tweets from Trump trashing the deal and baselessly accusing Democrats of siding with "the virus."

Throughout the day today, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — including Senate leadership — have said that they are close on making a deal.

The key Senate GOP negotiators on the economic stimulus bill to respond to coronavirus were summoned about an ago hour to the Strom Thurmond Room, near Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office to “get a full update” about the emerging agreement, according to Sen. Marco Rubio. 

An aide to another participant said the briefing was called by McConnell. 

It could not be immediately determined from aides if the White House negotiating team was in the room but they were spotted entering McConnell’s office which leads to the Strom Thurmond Room. 

Asked if this meeting was called to close the deal, Rubio replied: “They haven’t told us that but I don’t know why else we would be meeting. “

Italy has reported an increase in deaths of coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

Another 743 people have died as a result of coronavirus. That is an increase from Monday, which had been the second day of a downward trend. 

At least 6,820 people have died in Italy so far. There are at least 69,176 confirmed case of coronavirus in the country.

As coronavirus cases continue to rise in the United States, the nation has "potential" to become the next epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, said during a call with reporters on Tuesday. 

Harris was asked directly: "Do you see the United States going on to become the epicenter of this outbreak, overtaking Europe?"

In response Harris said, "We are now seeing a very large acceleration in the numbers of cases from the United States — so it does have that potential. We cannot say that that is the case yet, but it does have that potential."

Earlier in the call, Harris said that the majority of the world's latest Covid-19 cases have been in European countries and the United States.

"A lot of countries are now taking very strong measures to distance people, to really quarantine entire societies, and these have been shown to be an important way of slowing down this spread of the virus and buying some time," Harris said. "But to defeat the virus, to stop it, countries also need very aggressive targeted tactics, testing every suspected case, isolating and caring for every person known to be ill and also tracing and quarantining and finding every close contact."

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