April 10 coronavirus news

President Trump suggested Friday during the White House briefing that insurance companies should pay out business interruption claims related to the coronavirus, even if coverage for a pandemic is not explicitly included in their policy.

Trump added: "You have people that have never asked for business interruption insurance (payouts) and they’ve been paying a lot of money for a lot of years for the privilege of having it. And then when they finally need it, the insurance company says ‘we’re not going to give it.’ We can’t let that happen."

The President also said that his administration has already suggested to credit card companies that they should reduce their fees.

Watch:

At least 18,002 people have died in the US from coronavirus, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

There are at least 486,490 cases of coronavirus in the US, according to Johns Hopkins.

So far on Friday, Johns Hopkins has reported 20,740 new cases and 1,318 reported deaths. 

The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories, as well as all repatriated cases. Wyoming is the only state or territory that is not reporting a death from coronavirus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said there “is no doubt you're going to see cases” when some of the current social distancing restrictions are relaxed.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said when restrictions are lifted and cases emerge, “that's where you want your resources to be able to very efficiently in real-time identify, isolate, and contact trace.”

President Trump said that while he is hoping to reopen the country by a certain date, he won’t do anything until he knows the country will be healthy. He added that he doesn’t want to have the country “go back” and then have to implement restrictions again. 

“We are looking at a date. We hope we are going to be able to fulfill a certain date, but we are not doing anything until we know that this country is going to be healthy. We don't want to go back and start doing it over again, even though it would be in a smaller scale,” Trump said. 

Massachusetts had its single biggest day for confirmed Covid-19 cases on Thursday with 2,151 new cases reported, Gov. Charlie Baker said on Friday.

The state conducted “well over” 7,000 coronavirus tests on Thursday, the governor added.

The percent of people testing positive for the virus has increased over the past few weeks, the governor said. It reached a new high on Monday of 30%, and has remained in that range throughout the week. On Thursday, 29% of the tests were positive.

There were 70 new fatalities in the commonwealth on Thursday. Overall, the governor said, Massachusetts has roughly a 2.7% case fatality rate.

Following the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as other states, Massachusetts Department of Public Health is issuing an advisory recommending people wear a mask or cover their face in public.

President Trump said he will "certainly listen" to health experts when it comes to returning to normalcy and removing social distancing guidelines.

Trump's aides have begun intensive discussions on a plan to reopen the US economy as soon as the start of May, according to people familiar with the deliberations — though health experts warn it's far too early to declare mission accomplished and begin removing social distancing protocols.

CNN's Jim Acosta asked Trump if he'll listen to health officials if they advise him it's too soon to open.

"If they come back to you, sir, and say 'Before May the 1st — we can't open on May the 1st,' will you listen?" he asked.

"Remember, I understand the other side of the argument very well. Because I look at both sides of an argument. I will listen to them very carefully, though," Trump added.

Watch:

Dr. Deborah Birx said for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit, she is seeing a leveling of the curve in the United States.

Birx, an HIV researcher and the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that a lot of this is due to an improvement of the situation in New York and mitigation steps individuals took in the New York metro area. 

However, she cautioned that the US has "not reached the peak" of coronavirus infections.

US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams pulled out his asthma inhaler during today's White House briefing to prove that even "if you look fit" you could be at risk of getting coronavirus.

Adams was addressing data that shows coronavirus is disproportionately impacting people of color. He noted that people of color are not "biologically or genetically predisposed to get Covid-19." But that they "are socially predisposed to coronavirus exposure."

"It's alarming, but it's not surprising that people of color have a greater burden of chronic health conditions," he said, noting that those conditions might include high blood pressure and asthma.

"As a matter of fact, I've been carrying around an inhaler in my pocket for 40 years out of fear of having a fatal asthma attack," he said as he pulled out the inhaler. "And I hope that showing you this inhaler shows little kids with asthma all across the country that they can grow up to be Surgeon General one day."

He continued:

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the federal government has provided guidance to manufacturers to make cloth gowns — as opposed to the plastic ones typically used — for health care workers.

He also said the FDA revised guidance regarding the laundering of gowns "because gowns are another issue in terms of supply" that health care workers fighting coronavirus are facing.

"This is not something that normally happens around the country," he said.

Hahn said this is an effort to "increase the number of gowns" available for health care workers with "no further regulatory red tape to go into circulation."

Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci commended the steps Americans are taking to socially distance but warned that the country as a whole should not "be pulling back."

Dr. Deborah Birx, an HIV researcher and the White House coronavirus response coordinator, struck a similar tone. She commended the Washington and Baltimore areas for their adherence to social distancing guidelines, while cautioning that the US has "not reached the peak" of coronavirus infections.

"I know last week, we asked a lot of people in the Washington and Baltimore area to consolidate, not go out frequently to grocery stores or pharmacies. You can see that's having a huge impact, so it's really about the encouraging signs that we see. But as encouraging as they are, we have not reached the peak, and so every day, we need to continue to do what we did yesterday and the week before and the week before that. So in the end, that will take us across the peak and down the other side," Birx said.

The US has more than 475,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 18,000 deaths, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

Watch: