Helen Sullivan with you here. This blog is now closed. We have launched a new coronavirus live blog – where I’ll be bringing you the latest in this unprecedented crisis for the next few hours – at the link below.
Global confirmed virus death toll passes 40,000 – as it happened
This blog is closed
Tue 31 Mar 2020 19.38 EDT
First published on Mon 30 Mar 2020 19.32 EDT- British banks scrap dividends
- Oman reports first death – local media
- Boy, 13, becomes UK's youngest victim
- Slovakia suffers first death
- Burundi confirms first cases
- Summary
- Pregnant prisoners to be released from jails
- France reports 499 dead in 24 hours
- US passes China in confirmed Covid-19 deaths
- Global Covid-19 death toll passes 40,000
- Worst FTSE quarter since 1987
- Italy death toll rises by 837
- US coronavirus death toll passes 3,000
- Death toll in UK hospitals rises by 381 to 1,789
- 'Stay healthy!' US urges Americans left behind in Pakistan
- Coronavirus death toll in Netherlands passes 1,000
- Global confirmed infections pass 800,000
- Sierra Leone confirms first case of coronavirus
- Summary
- Ireland: government advises practising safe sex and hygienic masturbation
- UK: ONS figures show more deaths related to Covid-19 in England and Wales than previously reported
- Iran reports 141 new deaths and 3,111 cases of Coronavirus.
- Spain reports record single-day death toll
- Russia records biggest daily increase for seventh day running
- Dubai puts lockdown into force
- Indonesia records 114 new cases, 14 new deaths
- Italy has extended its lockdown until Easter
- Ireland: Confirmed cases of coronavirus halves
- Summary
- Vietnam to start lockdown
- UK Supermarket sales rocket
- WHO: coronavirus epidemic is “far from over” in the Asia-Pacific region
- Robert Koch Institute: Germany cases increase to 61,913; death toll hits 583
- UK news summary
- Australians in their 20s have more confirmed cases than any other age group
- UK papers, Tuesday 31 March
- 10% of Australian cases are from the Ruby Princess cruise ship
- British Airways suspends flights to and from London's Gatwick airport
- Summary
- World Bank warns pandemic is causing 'unprecedented global shock'
- One week since last new confirmed Wuhan case
- US deaths pass 3,000
- All efforts to address coronavirus in Syria impeded by fragile health system, senior UN official warns
- US cases are double those in China
- New coronavirus study reveals increased risks from middle age
- Summary
Live feed
- British banks scrap dividends
- Oman reports first death – local media
- Boy, 13, becomes UK's youngest victim
- Slovakia suffers first death
- Burundi confirms first cases
- Summary
- Pregnant prisoners to be released from jails
- France reports 499 dead in 24 hours
- US passes China in confirmed Covid-19 deaths
- Global Covid-19 death toll passes 40,000
- Worst FTSE quarter since 1987
- Italy death toll rises by 837
- US coronavirus death toll passes 3,000
- Death toll in UK hospitals rises by 381 to 1,789
- 'Stay healthy!' US urges Americans left behind in Pakistan
- Coronavirus death toll in Netherlands passes 1,000
- Global confirmed infections pass 800,000
- Sierra Leone confirms first case of coronavirus
- Summary
- Ireland: government advises practising safe sex and hygienic masturbation
- UK: ONS figures show more deaths related to Covid-19 in England and Wales than previously reported
- Iran reports 141 new deaths and 3,111 cases of Coronavirus.
- Spain reports record single-day death toll
- Russia records biggest daily increase for seventh day running
- Dubai puts lockdown into force
- Indonesia records 114 new cases, 14 new deaths
- Italy has extended its lockdown until Easter
- Ireland: Confirmed cases of coronavirus halves
- Summary
- Vietnam to start lockdown
- UK Supermarket sales rocket
- WHO: coronavirus epidemic is “far from over” in the Asia-Pacific region
- Robert Koch Institute: Germany cases increase to 61,913; death toll hits 583
- UK news summary
- Australians in their 20s have more confirmed cases than any other age group
- UK papers, Tuesday 31 March
- 10% of Australian cases are from the Ruby Princess cruise ship
- British Airways suspends flights to and from London's Gatwick airport
- Summary
- World Bank warns pandemic is causing 'unprecedented global shock'
- One week since last new confirmed Wuhan case
- US deaths pass 3,000
- All efforts to address coronavirus in Syria impeded by fragile health system, senior UN official warns
- US cases are double those in China
- New coronavirus study reveals increased risks from middle age
- Summary
We’ll be leaving this press conference soon as nothing much new is being said, and Trump continues to pat himself on the back.
He says nobody knew how contagious the virus was.
Asked whether he lulled people into a false sense of security Trump responds, “It’s going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month.”
Asked about homelessness in California, Trump takes the opportunity for a swipe against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “I’m not sure if she cares, she has it at a very high level in her district,” he says.
“Who would ever think you’d need 16,000 ventilators?” Trump asks.
He also, despite repeatedly criticising New York’s response, says he has a good relationship with the state. “We’re dealing with New York,” he says.
A reminder we’re with US president Donald Trump’s White House press briefing now, following the prediction that US deaths could reach 240,000.
The toll will be between 100,000 and that number, according to White House modelling.
Trump has called 100,000 a very low number. That figure was presented as a “goal” on a graph displayed by the coronavirus task force.
You can tune in live here:
“Do you ever run out of questions, you people?” Trump asks a room full of reporters.
Trump is talking about the impeachment. “They probably illegally impeached me... you don’t hear much about that nowadays because everyone’s talking about the virus,” which he is happy about, the US president says.
“The democrats their whole live their whole being their whole existence was to try and get me out of office any way they can even if it was a phony deal.”
Fact check: Hydroxychloroquine cure
Trump once again touted hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus cure, asserting that it won’t kill people because it has already been to treat other conditions. But the drug can have serious side effects even when it is used as recommended, to treat malaria, as well as lupus and arthritis.
Moreover, public health experts including his own top infectious diseases adviser, Dr. Fauci, have previously warned that there was only “anecdotal evidence” that the drugs could be helpful. My colleague Oliver Milman reported that a French study of 40 coronavirus patients found that half experienced clearing of their airways after being given hydroxychloroquine. Experts have warned that the study is small and lacks sufficient rigor to be classed as evidence of a potential treatment. The French health ministry has warned against the use of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19.
The surge in demand for the unproven hydroxychloroquine also risks shortages of the drug for those who need it most. It is used to help patients manage the chronic autoimmune disease lupus, but some are already complaining the drug is harder to come by. Trump’s pushing of the treatment has reportedly caused stockpiling of hydroxychloroquine.
Trump says: “I do think we were very early but we also were very smart. Because we had never done that before we had never closed our borders before... we also stopped Europe very shortly after... I stopped them a long time before anyone started stopping people anywhere.”
If we had had adequate testing would we have known? the reporter asks.
Pence says Trump’s initial efforts were designed to prevent the virus from entering the US and that they have been told that bought the country significant time.
“If I can also say to every American all the questions about resources are very important,” and that the president is working very hard to address the issue of resources.
He says if Americans can practice social distancing and other measures for 30 days it will make a significant difference to the crisis.
Dr. Birx is speaking now.
She says that it’s not possible to answer the reporter’s question until antibody testing is possible.
“We need to see was the virus circling in February, in early March.”
She says her and Dr. Fauci is focussed on getting testing to determine that.
“If there was no virus in the background there was nothing to mitigate,” Dr. Fauci jumps in to say.