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Italian death toll passes 20,000; more than 1.87m Covid-19 cases reported worldwide – as it happened

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Spain records another drop in daily death toll; Singapore sees biggest daily jump in infections; China reports highest daily cases in over five weeks. This blog is now closed

 Updated 
Mon 13 Apr 2020 20.02 EDTFirst published on Sun 12 Apr 2020 20.16 EDT
A member of the Italian Red Cross walks through an alley in Bergamo, Italy.
A member of the Italian Red Cross walks through an alley in Bergamo, Italy. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images
A member of the Italian Red Cross walks through an alley in Bergamo, Italy. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images

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Key events

Dr. Fauci opens by saying he does not claim to know anything about economics. “But the one thing we do know as health experts is... some people think it will be like a light switch on and off. But it won’t be.”

Each state is different, he says. There will be a “rolling re-entry,” says Dr. Fauci. “It’s not one size fits all.”

“The president will get a lot of input from a lot of others but we’ll give an honest public health recommendation.” He leaves the podium.

President Trump has left the briefing room, leaving the public health experts to answer questions. We’ll have more on updates from Dr Anthony Fauci shortly

But first, let’s revisit that campaign-ad style video that Trump played earlier today. As ABC’s Will Steakin demonstrates — it’s almost identical to a campaign ad from a few weeks ago.

Trump at the WH briefing just played a video that's nearly identical to a campaign ad posted a few weeks ago.

Trump campaign ad on the left, WH video on the right.

Both feature the same @maggieNYT audio, similar text/style https://t.co/AyyFLebwzM pic.twitter.com/39FHUFTt8K

— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) April 13, 2020

The White House Press briefing continues live:

Coronavirus: Donald Trump and members of the US task force brief reporters – watch live

42 dead in coronavirus outbreak at Virginia nursing home, more expected

As Trump continues to boast of his success in managing the coronavirus pandemic in the US – the epicentre of the crisis worldwide, with 400,000 more confirmed cases than Spain, the next worst-affected country – 42 residents of a Virginia nursing home near Richmond have died from the Covid-19 disease pandemic in one of the worst clusters of the new coronavirus in the United States, and officials expect more deaths to come.

At least 127 elderly people out of the 163 residents of the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Henrico County have tested positive for the new coronavirus in recent weeks, said its medical director Dr. James Wright. News reports say the latest two people died in the last three days.

“It’s been tough,” Wright, 56, said in an interview with Reuters. “We were surprised by how quickly this went through,” he said.

Wright told media at a recent news conference: “It’s a battle that at times we feel like we’re losing. It’s a battle that we have to fight every day and night, seven days a week.”

At least 35 members of Canterbury’s staff have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday, but Wright said he did not know how many have fallen ill.

But he said the virus has exacerbated an existing staffing shortage, with some staffers refusing to come to work for fear of getting ill.

“We did the best we could,” he said.

President Donald Trump has said repeatedly during this briefing that his administration was close to completing a plan to re-open the US economy, which has been largely shut down to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Trump noted that the number of deaths from the virus in the United States had begun to plateau, indicating that “social distancing” efforts had succeeded.

State governors, meanwhile, appear to be discussing plans to resume economic activity without seeking input from the Trump administration.

Nine states on the US East and West coasts said on Monday they had begun planning for the slow reopening of their economies and lifting of strict stay-at-home orders.

Pressed on the question of whether governors or the federal government would make the decision to re-open schools and closed businesses, the president said that he had ultimate authority.

“The president of the United States calls the shots,” Trump said. “That being said, we’re going to work with the states.”

Meanwhile on CNN:

CNN banner right now pic.twitter.com/oA6IK9zuY2

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) April 13, 2020

Another banner pic.twitter.com/KTeB72Rizs

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) April 13, 2020

pic.twitter.com/jnGRw4afGf

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) April 13, 2020

pic.twitter.com/ePxcwLTK5W

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) April 13, 2020

The president said that he’ll decide by the end of the week whether the US will continue to fund the World Health Organization (WHO). The international body has been a frequent scapegoat for Trump, who blames WHO officials for the severity of the pandemic.

He also referred to the WHO and the World Trade Organization as the Bobbsey Twins, characters from children’s books first published in 1904.

My long dead grandfather called and wants his “Bobbsey Twins” reference back.

— Rob Hayes (@robhayes) April 13, 2020

President Trump was just denouncing the corrupt (WHO) World Health Org. & (WTO) World Trade Org for constantly "ripping off the U.S." and said "they're like the Bobbsey Twins." If you don't find that characterization highly entertaining, I'm not sure we can be friends anymore.

— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) April 13, 2020

Trump says he calls the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization the “Bobbsey Twins,” and I had to look that up which made me feel young ;)

— Nahal Toosi (@nahaltoosi) April 13, 2020

Read more here on why WHO’s responsibility far outweighs its power and capacity:

Vice President Mike Pence is speaking now:

Pence then adds when pressed: "Make no mistake about it," in this country's long history, the president's powers in an emergency are "unquestionably plenary."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 13, 2020

As Steve Mnuchin leaves the podium Trump says “Phase 4 Steve, Phase 4, come on Steve,” referring to the Phase 4 bill of the economic stimulus package, which Mnuchin is leaving the press briefing to negotiate.

Trump says we’ll know “in the next few days” whether he wants to reopen the country on 1 May.

The US has 577,307 confirmed cases of coronavirus, and 23,232 people have died.

Trump is asked whether he will assure people that he will take the advice of health exerts. He says he absolutely will. Asked whether he would ever go against their advice he says, “I don’t think it would be very likely because I think we’ll be on the same page.”

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