March 30 coronavirus news

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced at a press conference today he will be signing an executive order for the state that "codifies a common set of rules regarding safer at home for southeast Florida." 

DeSantis cites the high number of Covid-19 cases in south Florida as the reason behind the order. The order applies to Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, DeSantis said.

"With this order and all that these counties have done we're going guns blazing and doing all that we can to slow the spread of Covid-19," DeSantis said. 

Addressing comments made over the weekend by President Trump, Dr. Leana Wen, former health commissioner for the city of Baltimore, said it’s insulting to suggest hospitals are hoarding supplies.  

Without providing any evidence or examples, President Trump raised questions on Sunday about why there is such a large demand for masks in hospitals and again charged there is some “hoarding” of ventilators. 

Speaking with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, Wen said, “It's not as if we get through today and we're done. We need to be preparing for months or years, and frankly, it's insulting to suggest that hospitals are somehow keeping equipment away from health care workers, and jeopardizing their lives.”

“We're looking at the numbers of patients coming in, and we can easily see how much equipment is needed and not only that, but it's not just the equipment that we're using right now, we also have to be prepared for the equipment that we're going to be needing in the months to come, because this is not a one-time event. It's not as if we get through today and we're done,” Wen said. 

Wen said in the Baltimore area, “this is still the relative calm before the storm but we know that storm is not far away because we are hearing and seeing the reports of our colleagues in New York."

New York City Fire Department paramedic Anthony Almojera said he has seen a lot on his job — but dealing with the coronavirus crisis has posed new challenges.

He described how he tried to comfort a husband after his wife, who was a health care worker, died — but he couldn't touch the grieving man.

“When people pass away, the grief component has to transfer,” he said. “Normally, I would put my arm around him but this time around, I had to keep distance and I watched this man’s grief come over him, his anger, his sadness. We tried to comfort him from a distance because there’s a high probability he has it and I have to be concerned for not only my safety but my crew’s safety," he said, adding that the husband was also a health care worker.

He said that while his crew is vulnerable, they're still working to help people.

“I just want to say to everybody out there, if you call 911, we’ll be there," he said.

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The US Navy Hospital Ship Comfort is expected to soon dock in New York City.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke about the coronavirus pandemic as the ship approached its dock.

Remember: The ship is not expected to treat coronavirus patients. Rather it will be used to relocate shore-based patients undergoing treatments that are not coronavirus-related in an effort to help ease the burden on hospitals.

It contains 12 fully-equipped operating rooms, 1,000 hospital beds, radiology services, a medical lab, pharmacy, optometry lab, a CAT-scan and two oxygen producing plants, according to the Navy.

According to CNN Health's tally of US cases that are detected and tested in the United States through US public health systems, there are at least 140,570 cases of coronavirus in the US; 2,443 people have died in the US from coronavirus. 

The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases. Hawaii and Wyoming have not reported a death from coronavirus.  

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson announced on Monday that it plans to initiate human clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate by September, and anticipates the first batches of the vaccine could be available for emergency use by early next year.

The vaccine development comes as part of a partnership between Johnson & Johnson and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

BARDA and Johnson & Johnson "together have committed more than $1 billion of investment to co-fund vaccine research, development, and clinical testing," according to a press release from Johnson & Johnson.

"As the world’s largest healthcare company, we feel a deep responsibility to improve the health of people around the world every day," Gorksy said. "Johnson & Johnson is well positioned through our combination of scientific expertise, operational scale and financial strength to bring our resources in collaboration with others to accelerate the fight against this pandemic.”

A painting by Vincent van Gogh was stolen overnight from a Dutch museum closed for the Covid-19 epidemic.

The Singer Laren Museum just outside Amsterdam sai that the painting is Van Gogh’s "The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring," which had been on loan from the Groninger Museum.

“It is very bad for the Groninger Museum. It’s also very bad for Singer. But above all it is horrible for all of us, because art is there to be seen and shared by all of us, for society as a whole, to bring enjoyment, to bring inspiration, and also to bring comfort. Especially in this difficult time.” 

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin suggested there will be a fourth stimulus package to handle the effects of coronavirus, which could include hazard pay for first responders, as the President suggested earlier today.

The negotiation team is not yet working on a fourth bill, he said, noting that the Treasury Department is “working around the clock” to get the third stimulus programs up and running, but “We’re ready to work with Congress if we need more enhancements or additional funds.”

He added, “If we run out of money and this is a huge success, we will absolutely go back to Congress and ask for more money.”

Mnuchin reiterated that this will be a rough quarter and the administration is “sympathetic” to those who have lost their jobs. 

“I think we’re going to have a rough quarter because we’ve shut down major parts of the economy,” he said.

He said loans through the Small Business Administration should be available starting on Friday, and documents and instructions will be released “later today,” calling it a “very simple process.”

US markets opened solidly in the green on Monday, building on last week's spike.

Here's how the markets opened today:

Some context: The rally comes after the markets fell sharply Friday but still enjoyed historic gains for the week. The Dow skyrocketed 12.8% last week — its best since June 1938. The S&P 500 finished up 10.3%, the strongest since March 2009.

The oil market remains in disarray. US oil prices tumbled 6% to $20.25 a barrel, leaving them on track for the lowest close since 2002.