COVID-19 deaths continue to skyrocket globally: Deaths in 24 hours: US – 100, Spain – 591, Italy – 608

U.S. states on Monday reported more than 100 deaths from the novel coronavirus, pushing the country’s total death toll past 500 and marking the first time single-day fatalities have risen into the triple-digits since the pandemic reached U.S. soil. The virus has now claimed lives in at least 34 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and has infected more than 41,000 people nationwide, according to tracking by The Washington Post.

Here are some significant developments:

    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at a news conference that all nonessential shops will close, travel will be restricted, and police will enforce social distancing if necessary.  President Trump is weighing calls from some Republican lawmakers and White House advisers to scale back steps to contain the coronavirus despite the advice of federal health officials. Senior U.S. health officials, including Anthony S. Fauci, who have said the worst of the pandemic has yet to be felt in the United States.

Hospitals overwhelmed – World losing humanity: Fortaleza, Brasil – Critically ill patient, possibly suffering from a coronavirus infection told to go home because they were not equipped to deal with him.

The nation’s governors are getting far better marks for their handling of the coronavirus outbreak than President Trump, according to a new Monmouth University poll. Fifty percent of Americans say Trump has done a good job handling the crisis, while 72 percent say governors have done a good job — results that are consistent regardless of party affiliation or severity of outbreak in a particular state. Michigan, Ohio, Louisiana and Oregon became the latest states to announce stay-at-home orders. The governors of Maryland and Massachusetts ordered nonessential businesses to close, and Virginia’s governor said schools would remain closed for the rest of the academic year.

    Virus-ravaged Italy marked 608 coronavirus deaths Monday, bringing its total to 5,476 — more than any other country. Spain extended its lock-down for another 15 days as the national death toll surged more than 25 percent. Spain now has more than 33,000 confirmed cases, and the prime minister warned that “the worst is yet to come.” –Washington Post

News reporter pleads in vain with U.S. President Trump to shut down the country

WASHINGTON — President Trump continued to downplay the exponential spread of the coronavirus in the United States on Monday, comparing the rising death toll to the number of Americans killed in car crashes and by the seasonal flu. “We have a very active flu season, more active than most,” Trump said at a Monday briefing of the White House coronavirus task force, reverting to how he had described the coronavirus throughout February and early March, before he started to take the outbreak more seriously. “It’s looking like it’s heading to 50,000 or more deaths,” he went on, speaking of flu-related mortality.

He then compared the coronavirus outbreak to another killer of thousands of Americans. “You look at automobile accidents,” Trump said, “which are far greater than any numbers we’re talking about. That doesn’t mean we’re going to tell everybody no more driving of cars.” About 39,000 people die in vehicular accidents in the United States per year. The point seemed to be that, as far as mortality numbers go, the coronavirus was not an especially fearsome killer. By that logic, effectively shuttering whole swaths of the economy, Trump said, made little sense.

“We have to do things to get our country open,” Trump said, calling the last several weeks “an incredible period of learning.” He did not say what was learned, or by whom. The growth trajectory of the disease over the last several weeks has continued to cut a devastating swath across the nation. There are now more than 43,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and there have been more than 530 deaths. –Yahoo