March 26 coronavirus news

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she sent a request to President Trump for a major disaster declaration.

The declaration would allow the state to provide rental assistance and temporary housing to people in the state, counseling and therapy for residents, and the ability to quickly set up field hospitals or other facilities to treat coronavirus patients.

Whitmer reminded people that the stay-at-home executive order is not optional and is not an opportunity for people to throw a party for 10 of their closest friends. They are meant to stay at home with whom the family members they live. 

She said she is working to secure more equipment and supplies and reiterated her comments about how the allotment of personal protective equipment for one of the hospitals was not enough to cover a full shift.

The Greater New York Chamber of Commerce says the $2 trillion stimulus package is "too little too late."

"As of now, no one has received any money. It’s all talk, while people need relief now! Small business is being crushed and even unemployment is slow getting money out to people who need it the most. If the politicians were not getting a paycheck; you can bet the relief would already be here," said Mark Jaffe, CEO of the Greater New York Chamber.

The Greater New York Chamber of Commerce represents 30,000 businesses and civic leaders. New York State had 80,000 unemployment claims last week – up 66,000 from the week prior.

Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said coronavirus “is going to be the disaster that’s going to define our generation.”

Arnold told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that the city needs more personal protective equipment and ventilators for hospitals, but also could face a food supply shortage. Food banks today have enough food to last only another two days, he says.

The situation in Louisiana: There have been 827 coronavirus cases and 37 deaths in Orleans Parish. Arnold said Mardi Gras celebrations likely contributed to the spread of the virus. President Trump on Wednesday approved an urgent request for a major disaster declaration for Louisiana, which now grants the state access to federal aid as it combats the spread of Covid-19.

Watch more:

India, the world's second most populated country after China, is delaying the first phase of the national census as well as the National Population Register (NPR) due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed via an official Twitter account for Census of India 2021.

Both the first phase of census and the NPR were initially meant to be carried out from April 1 to September 30.

On Tuesday night, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi ordered a 21-day nationwide lockdown starting at midnight Wednesday. The Ministry of Home Affairs cited that lockdown and said both the first phase of census and NPR will be delayed until further notice

India conducts the census once every decade. The first census was in 1872, when India was under British rule.

The exercise is essentially a population headcount which serves as a primary source for a variety of statistics on the country's demography, literacy, migration, mortality, economy and culture.

The NPR has been a contentious. Back in 2018 its publication in India's northeast border state of Assam left the names of almost 4 million people off the controversial registry list, effectively casting a shadow over their citizenship.

The acting Navy secretary said the hospital ship USNS Comfort would reach New York “hopefully… by the early part of next week” after the Defense Department “accelerated” their deployment plan.

The Comfort had not been expected to depart for weeks as it was undergoing maintenance in Virginia.

BBC will stop streaming shows in ultra high definition as part of efforts to reduce strain on the internet, the British public service broadcaster said Thursday.

Other streaming services — like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube — have also reduced the quality of their streams in Europe after requests by EU officials as part of measures to make sure everyone can get online during the coronavirus pandemic.

The spokesperson added that the network's iPlayer already streams at different video quality levels, adapting to the amount of bandwidth available and the device being used. 

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro called record unemployment numbers “expected” Thursday morning, shortly after it was announced that jobless claims soared to a seasonally adjusted 3.28 million in the week ending March 21, according to the Department of Labor. 

The Trump adviser said that the administration had “put public health above economics in the very short run.”

“This is expected,” Navarro repeated, “and we should accept the news because we’re doing what we need to do to combat the virus.”

The administration is doing “everything we possibly can to deal both with the public health emergency and the economic crisis,” he added. 

“We just have to be like the British, I guess, in World War II, a stiff upper lip and fight this virus,” Navarro counseled.  

Spain’s Health Minister Salvador Illa said analysis of recent data from Spain indicated a “phase of stabilization” in the trend of diagnoses, speaking at a session of parliament today.

Top Spanish health official Fernando Simón also tentatively noted signs of a peak in the data, answering a question from CNN in the government’s daily coronavirus briefing. 

Taking into account the delay in the data from the time of transmission and then getting symptoms and being diagnosed, Simón said “the rate of increase is stabalizing”.

“It’s an indicator that the peak of the curve with respect to the total diagnoses is approaching,” Simón said — though he noted they would have to continue to monitor the data to confirm this.

Some context: Health officials had said they expected to see a peak in the rate of increase of infections Spain this week. However, there had been little signs of this on Wednesday when Spain’s death toll overtook China’s.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the state has 4,400 positive tests and 62 deaths. The numbers are up because of community spread and because testing facilities are open, he said.

“We are all in on stay at home,” the governor told local radio program Hot 97 Ebro in the Morning.

“There is hope on the horizon we just don’t know when that is, but hope for the best but prepare for the worst let’s not be fooling each other right now,” he said. “This is a war.”

On federal help, Murphy said “I need him, I need the Vice President, we need the federal government, we need the White House.”

The White House team for the most part has been “good” to deal with, Murphy said. The White House helped approve standing up four field hospitals that the Army Corps and FEMA are setting up for the state, he added.

He said the state is “desperately short” of Personal protective equipment noting the government has already given 2 installments “ but we need a lot more.”

With regards to Trump's optimism about being able to slowly open up around April 12, Murphy said, “I'll be the happiest guy in New Jersey, maybe in America, if that’s the case but I sadly think the data is suggesting to us we’re not going to be there.”

He said of the stimulus package “it’s a big deal” adding but “it’s not everything”