United States of America Live Update

• Trump announces plan to suspend immigration to US. US president Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he will “temporarily suspend” immigration to the US, referring to the “invisible enemy,” a term he has used in the White House press briefings and on Twitter to refer to coronavirus.
• Oil price falls to historic low due to coronavirus. The US oil market collapsed into negative prices for the first time as North America’s oil producers run out of space to store an unprecedented oversupply of crude left by the pandemic. However, Trump has downplayed the oil price drop, saying it’s only “short term”.
• “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA,” Trump said in a tweet-storm in which he also lashed out at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for criticising the federal response. Cuomo “should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining,'” the president said.
• Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Friday accused Donald Trump of “fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies” after the United States president urged supporters to “LIBERATE” three states led by Democratic governors.
• After saying governors would decide when to reopen, Trump urges supporters to ‘LIBERATE’ some states led by Democrats.
• Hundreds of protesters march outside the Kentucky State Capitol to rally against current social distancing requirements and business closures. In a provocative series of tweets on Friday, United States President Donald Trump appeared to support protest movements popping up around the country calling for an immediate end to the lockdowns imposed on Americans in an order to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
• The US government reported 5.2 million more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the four-week total to 22 million – the worst stretch of US job losses on record. The losses translate to about one in seven American workers.
• At his White House briefing on Wednesday, Trump threatened to shut down both chambers of Congress so that he can make recess appointments related to the pandemic.
• Doctors and drug companies in the United States have launched more than 100 human experiments in a disorganized and scattershot effort to find treatments for coronavirus patients.
• US coronavirus deaths have risen by a single-day record 2,228 to top 28,300, according to a Reuters tally, as officials debated how to reopen the economy without reigniting the outbreak.
• The United States, with the world’s third-largest population, passed a second milestone late on Tuesday with over 600,000 reported cases, three times more than any other country.
• President Trump on Tuesday said that he planned to stop United States funding of the World Health Organization while reviewing its role in what he described as “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
• President Trump publicly signaled his frustration on Sunday with Dr. Anthony S Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, after the doctor said more lives could have been saved from the coronavirus if the country had been shut down earlier.
• At one of the largest pork processing plants in the U.S., 238 employees got virus. Now it is closing. The plant, which is run by Smithfield Foods Inc., has 3,700 employees and produces 130 million servings of food per week, accounting for 4 to 5 percent of pork production in the United States, the company said.
• JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said he expects a major economic downturn and stress similar to the crisis that almost brought down the U.S. financial system in 2008.
• New York state lockdown extended to April 29.
• President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused the World Health Organization of minimizing the threat of the coronavirus as he escalated the war-of-words with the humanitarian group.
• Donald Trump blasts ‘China-centric’ World Health Organisation for ‘minimizing the threat’ of coronavirus while top White House adviser calls them ‘Beijing proxies’ in escalating war of words.
• WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu defended his agency’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to a question about Trump’s criticism and suggestion that Washington could review funding.
• A Tiger at the Bronx Zoo in NewYork has tested positive for Coronavirus.
• Wisconsin officials are moving forward with holding the planned April 7 Presidential primary election as reported case of COVID-19 drastically increase in the state.
• Public health experts and U.S. officials helping tally American deaths say some are likely going unrecorded in the current official death toll, which only includes cases confirmed in laboratory tests.
• The U.S. Deaths surpassed China’s.
• The U.S. reported 178 new cases and 4 deaths. The total death toll in the U.S. is now 9618.
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a domestic travel advisory for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
• Even if all of the social distancing and guidelines are followed “perfectly,” Dr. Birx said, the death toll in the nation could reach 100,000 to 200,000.
• At least seven National Park Service employees have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, yet the Trump administration continues to operate the park system that attracts thousands of Americans each day.
• At least 1,550 people in New York have died of the coronavirus, the most deaths that any state has confirmed as virus-related, and nearly 76,000 people have been infected.