March 28 coronavirus news

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told CNN he would sue Rhode Island if they did not roll back a policy of stopping all cars with New York license plates, but that he expects the two states will be able to work it out amicably.

"That clearly is unconstitutional," Cuomo said, adding he understands Rhode Island's goal of trying to slow the spread of coronavirus.

"But there's a point of absurdity, and I think what Rhode Island did is at the point of absurdity. Again, it is not even legal," he said.

No state should be using police to prohibit interstate travel in any way, Cuomo said.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will write letters to households across the UK urging people to stay home, according to a Downing Street statement on Saturday.

The Prime Minister's letters will be sent to 30 million households next week and will say the following:

UK residents will receive a leaflet outlining the government’s coronavirus advice, with clear explanations of symptoms, rules on leaving the house and rules on self-isolating with symptoms. The letters and leaflets are expected to cost $7.2 million (£5.8 million) to print and distribute.

The statement added that Johnson "is continuing to lead the Government’s response to coronavirus as he self isolates after testing positive for the virus."

At least 215 million Americans are under stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders as of 6 p.m. ET Saturday, according to a CNN count.

States have announced additional orders that will take effect late Saturday and Monday.

By Sunday morning, at least 216.9 million Americans will be under the same orders and by Monday that number will jump to at least 225 million.

This count includes local city and county orders as well. The numbers were tallied using census data.

President Donald Trump said Saturday he's considering mandatory short-term (two-week) quarantine on New York, certain parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. Trump says it’d be an enforceable quarantine. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told CNN locking down states isn't legal and would lead to "total mayhem." He called Trump's suggestion a "federal declaration of war" on states.

Cuomo says New York is the financial sector of the country and it’d be paralyzed if the state was put on lockdown. 

"How would you ever operationally stop goods from coming to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut? … I can’t believe he’s considering that," Cuomo said.

"As a governor, I’m not going to close down my borders."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says questions about his decision to not to issue a statewide mandate closing Florida's beaches during spring break is "more of a political issue."

The New York City subway is being "packed like sardines," but a family sitting outside in "sunshine, heat and humidity, that's not as big as a problem," DeSantis said.

DeSantis says he did impose "10-person limit" for groups and local officials maintained limited access to beaches for residents. Several Florida beaches were closed by local officials in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties. 

On Friday, DeSantis said he's suspending vacation rentals in Florida for the next two weeks and is planning to extend an executive order to require travelers coming from Louisiana to Florida to do a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine or isolation period. The order currently applies to travelers coming to Florida from airports in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

There are at least 113,805 cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States, according to CNN Health’s tally of cases that are detected and tested in the US through US public health systems.

At least 1,892 people have died in the United States from coronavirus. 

For the most up-to-date US numbers compiled by CNN, please check this map which automatically refreshes every 10 minutes.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that he will be increasing travel restrictions in Canada for anyone showing symptoms of coronavirus.

Officials have encouraged people to stay home, especially if they are developing or have developed symptoms of the virus, Trudeau said.

"You need to stay home, you need to isolate, you need to not travel," he said.

Trudeau added that while Canadians have been largely respecting the travel restrictions, the additional restriction will help "formalize some of the domestic travel rules."

Canadian health officials on Sunday corrected erroneous data reported during a press conference held Saturday, saying that younger generations account for 12% of hospitalizations, not 30% as previously stated.

In a tweet, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam apologized for the error and said: “I misspoke on the percentage of hospitalized cases.”

“The case report forms lag behind the real time data, while they provide more in depth information for epidemiological analysis,” the statement said.

Other notable observations from the Public Health Agency of Canada analysis on Saturday showed that people over 60 were more likely to be hospitalized with 56% going to hospital for treatment. Of those, more than half were admitted to intensive care.

The information showed that most of the new cases in Canada were from community transmission and not from travel.

"We have now completed tests for over 184,000 people in Canada which is more than 84,000 additional people tested since Monday. In terms of the severity of Covid 19 in Canada, the percentage of cases that require hospitalization is approximately 7%. About 3% are critically ill and 1% of cases have been fatal," Tam said on Saturday.

UPDATE: This post was updated to reflect the latest data from Canadian officials. 

Italian schools will remain closed beyond the initial April 3 deadline, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced from Rome on Saturday.

The decision on suspending nonessential production activities will be taken next week, Conte said.

"We know this measure has a great impact, it's very costly, but our priority is the health of citizens," Conte said.