Live Coronavirus Updates and Coverage – The New York Times

President Donald Trump shakes hands before a dinner with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla on March 7, 2020.

Credit: Alex Brandon/AP

In Fox News studios in both New York and Washington, producers, reporters and on-air talent paid rapt attention to this story, in large part because Bolsonaro and his entourage including a close aide who had already manifested symptoms and tested positive had met days earlier at Mar-a-Lago with President Donald Trump, key Trump aides (including Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump), and Fox News prime-time anchor Tucker Carlson.

But Foxwas unwilling to report something as significant as a positive coronavirus test for the Brazilian president without further confirmation. As a result, according toemployees inside Fox News with first-hand knowledge of the episode but who are unauthorized to speak publicly about the matter, they decided they needed first-hand confirmation from either Bolsonaro or one of his three politician-sons. To obtain it, they quickly reached out to Alex Phares, the son of Trump confidant and Fox News analyst Walid Phares.

The younger Phares has become well-known in conservative circles for arranging media and other appearances for Bolsonaros youngestpolitical son, the So Paulo Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, including booking him on three separate panels at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held the week prior to the Trump/Bolsonaro Mar-a-Lago meeting. CPAC itself was the site for several now-confirmed coronavirus cases, including the leader of Spains far-right Vox PartySantiago Abascal, whom Eduardo boasted of meeting there (meeting and shaking hands with Abascal is what led Texas Senator Ted Cruz to self-isolate for the second time):

At roughly 10:00 a.m. ET on Friday morning roughly 40 minutes after the O Dia column appeared Phares, first by text and then by voice, confirmed to Fox News that Eduardo, that morning, had told him thathis fathers first testhad indeed returned positive. But Fox was still unwilling to report this without speaking to one of the Bolsonaros directly. They asked Phraes if he could arrange both a telephone and on-air interview with Eduardo.

Roughly thirty minutes later, Fox spoke directly to Eduardo, who, Fox sources insist, stated unequivocally that his father had received the results of his first coronavirus test and it was positive; the presidents son said that they were awaiting the results of a second test.Eduardo and Fox agreed that he would be interviewed about the coronavirus test on-air via Skype at 11:30 a.m. EsT.

Shortly before the interview, Eduardo again confirmed that his fathers first test was positive for the presence of coronavirus. Hearing two separate, definitive confirmations from Eduardo, as well as from Phares, Fox had the confidence it needed to have its White House correspondent, John Roberts, announce on Twitter that President Bolsonaro had tested positive for the coronavirus, and Fox shortly thereafter published a print article online and a broadcast report with the same news. All of that reporting made clear that their source was Eduardo.

The Brazilian media had exercised the same caution as Fox, unwilling to report something so momentous based solely on an anonymously-sourced report in O Dia. But once Fox News had reported the news based on Eduardos confirmation, they naturally began noting Foxs report. News of the presidents positive coronavirus test spread quickly online.

As soon as that happened, Eduardo went on the offensive with a standard Bolsonaro family tactic: accusing the Brazilian media of maliciously fabricating Fake News against his father, a particularly inflammatory accusation where it involved reports of his fathers positive coronavirus test. But when Brazilian media outlets united to make clear that the report was not theirs but Fox News a network beloved by the Bolsonaros and their movement and that the named source for the story was Eduardo himself, Eduardo had two choices: he could either admit that Fox was telling the truth and that he had confirmed the positive test to them, or he could start accusing Fox News of lying. He chose the latter.

In a series of increasingly unhinged tweets that extended into Saturday morning, Eduardo insisted that he had never told any reporter including one at Fox that his father had tested positive for the coronavirus. Sitting in front of photos of a machine gun and a Revolutionary American flag, Eduardo then recorded videos in both Portuguese and English (see below) in which he insisted (caps in original) THIS IS ALL A LIE:

Then, in a bizarre on-air mid-Friday interview on Fox News by which point President Bolsonaro himself had claimed that his test result, which he has still yet to show the public, was negative Eduardo told the visibly baffled and frustrated Fox anchor Sandra Smith that he was not aware of the results of any first coronavirus test for his father, and continually tried to shift the interview back to his fathers claim that the ultimate test was negative.

In response to Eduardos false accusations that Fox had fabricated their conversations with him, Fox News issued an avalanche of clear and emphatic denunciations. Fox sources told the Intercept that they were shocked and indignant and still are as they watched Eduardo repeatedly lie and brazenly deny that he told the network that his fathers test was positive, even though he had done exactly that twice. And they hardly disguised their anger.

Their public responses included an article headlined: Brazil President Bolsonaros son claims father tested negative for coronavirus despite earlier reports that made clear at the beginning that Eduardo was lying:

Reports out of Brazil had initially indicated Bolsonaro had tested positive, and his son appeared to confirm this to Fox News earlier Friday, adding that further testing was being done to confirm the diagnosis and the second set of testing was expected later in the day.

However, in a subsequent appearance on Americas Newsroom, Eduardo denied his father had ever tested positive.

Fox then released the text messages between its journalists and Phares to Globos flagship news program, Jornal Nacional, in which Phares confirmed to Fox that he had just spoken to Eduardo about the presidents positive test.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, Foxs John Roberts explicitly stated as Eduardo was denying it that the presidents son had told Fox that his father had a preliminary POSITIVE test for coronavirus.

Roberts then went on the air on Fox and, standing in front of the White House, emphasized that Eduardo was lying in his denials:

Another Fox reporter, Chris Irvine, similarly made clear that Eduardo was lying, tweeting on Friday:Earlier today, Eduardo Bolsonaro confirmed reports that his father had tested positive for coronavirus to FOX News and said they were waiting for further testing. He later appeared on FOX News and claimed his father had tested negative for coronavirus.

From the start, the Bolsonaros behavior has been extremely strange regarding the question of whether the Brazilian President does or not have the coronavirus. Indeed, when a widely respected reporter from Brazils largest newspaper, Monica Bergamo of Folha, reported that Bolsonaros Communications chief Fabio Wajngarten had returned from the U.S. with classic COVID-19 symptoms and was being tested, Wajngarten attacked her on Twitter and implied she had made it up only for his positive test to be confirmed the next day.

Now that nine members of Bolsonaros entourage have tested positive, the mystery has less clarity than ever. Almost immediately after claiming that his test was negative just hours after his son told Fox that it was positive Bolsonaro refused to release the results of the test itself or have any doctor vouch for them, and then, without explanation, the presidents office announced that Bolsonaro would remain in isolation for fourteen more days and would undergo another test.

But then yesterday, during nationwide anti-democracy protests originally encouraged by Bolsonaroaimed at the Congressand Supreme Court, but which Bolsonaro ultimately discouraged on the grounds that it would be dangerous in a pandemic, the Brazilian President shocked everyone by leaving the palace and the medical isolation he was supposed to be in to join a crowd of supporters. He proceeded to touch at least 272 of them, including shaking hands, fist bumping and taking their telephones to snap selfies before handing them back. Prior to that on Twitter, Bolsonaro had implicitly encouraged his supporters to attend the mass street gatherings in direct contradiction of the urgings of his own Health Minister by posting photos of the protests invarious cities.

That President Bolsonaro who has mocked the pandemic from the start as a fantasy and a media exaggeration and whose key evangelical allies are now calling it a hoax would leave his medical isolation and risk the health of his own supporters by physically interacting with them outraged much of the country, particularly as it appeared to send exactly the opposite message about social distancing that healths officials in Brazil, where huge numbers of poor people live in extreme density in favelas and where the health system is already utterly dysfunctional, are desperate to convey.

But the question of Bolsonaros healthremains shrouded in mystery. And that mystery is now fueled by his son inadvertently starting a war with a news outlet they trained their followers to worship: Fox News. Eduardo Bolsonaro essentially forced Fox News to prove that the Bolsonaros are liars by accusing the network of fabricating conversations they had with him in which he clearly confirmed his fathers positive test.

Florida deaths are the East Coasts first, as U.S. caseload rises past 300.

Authorities across the United States reported 307 cases of coronavirus and 17 deaths as of Friday, with Florida reporting the first deaths on the East Coast. The number of infections does not count the 21 people who have tested positive aboard a cruise ship off California.

Florida officials on Friday night said there had been two deaths in the state related to the coronavirus. Both of the people who died had traveled internationally, they said.

Hawaii reported its first confirmed infection, a person who had been on the cruise ship, the Grand Princess.

The West Coast has borne the brunt of the toll in the United States. Washington State has recorded the most coronavirus cases, more than 80, and the highest number of deaths, 14. Most of the fatal cases emerged from a Seattle-area nursing home. Officials in King County, Wash., said 15 residents of the facility, Life Care Center, had been taken to hospitals over the past 24 hours.

Two residents of other Seattle-area complexes that largely serve elderly people have now also been hospitalized and tested positive, officials said, identifying them as Issaquah Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and Ida Culver House Ravenna.

Starbucks reported Friday night that one of its employees in downtown Seattle had tested positive. The company said the store has been closed for cleaning.

Also in the Seattle area, two Microsoft employees were being treated for the coronavirus, a company spokesman said. Microsoft did not close its campus, but it had already advised employees to work from home if possible.

The University of Washington, with 50,000 students, said that it would cancel in-person classes from Monday through at least March 20, and have students take classes and final exams remotely. Seattle University, with about 7,300 students, also said it would move to online classes for the rest of the winter quarter, and Northeastern University in Boston will do the same for students on its Seattle campus.

The chief federal judge in Seattle ordered the cancellation of all in-person federal court hearings in western Washington State.

California has treated 70 people for the virus, one of whom has died, and new cases continue to emerge at a worrying rate. An employee of the F.B.I.s San Francisco division tested positive, the first confirmed case at the bureau.

The virus has been reported in 20 other states, though most have few cases and none have reported fatalities. They are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

Everyone on the Grand Princess cruise ship will be tested, after 21 tested positive.

All of the 3,533 people aboard a cruise ship idling off San Francisco will be tested for the coronavirus, after 19 crew members and two passengers tested positive, Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday.

The ship, the Grand Princess, had been halted off the coast on Wednesday, until passengers with possible coronavirus symptoms or exposure could be tested. On Thursday, a Coast Guard helicopter flew testing kits to the ship and flew samples for 46 people back to shore.

Twenty-one of those on the ship tested positive for the coronavirus, 24 tested negative and one test was inconclusive, Mr. Pence said at a White House news briefing blindsiding the passengers and the ships operators.

We have developed a plan which will be implemented this weekend to bring the ship into a noncommercial port, he added. All passengers and crew will be tested for the coronavirus. Those that need to be quarantined will be quarantined. Those that require additional medical attention will receive it.

Mr. Pence said the Defense Department was working to locate a California military base where passengers on the ship could be tested. Two air bases in the state have been used to house quarantined Americans repatriated from Asia.

Shortly after Mr. Pences briefing, the ship captain came over the loudspeaker and apologized that passengers were getting updates from television news rather than him. The captain said that he had not received any advance notice about the news briefing and that the ship would notify individuals of their test results as soon as possible.

The Princess cruise line said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials had told the doctor on board of the results as Mr. Pence was speaking.

President Trump, speaking at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said he would have preferred not to let the passengers disembark onto American soil. I dont need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasnt our fault, he said. And it wasnt the fault of the people on the ship either. Okay? It wasnt their fault either. And they are mostly Americans.

He added that, after all, he had authorized federal health officials to make the decision.

South by Southwest leads long list of canceled events.

The 34th annual edition of South by Southwest, the annual festival of music, film and technology in Austin that has become a global draw, was ordered canceled on Friday by local officials over fears about the spread of coronavirus.

Festival organizers and government officials had come under intense pressure in recent days to pull the plug, with more than 50,000 people signing an online petition and a growing list of tech companies among them Apple, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok announcing their withdrawal.

The festival was to have run from March 13-22, with events spread across bars and party spaces in Austin, in addition to the main conference activities.

The cancellation is perhaps the largest collateral damage of the virus so far on the international cultural calendar. Last year, South by Southwests various events had a combined attendance of 417,000, including 159,000 who came to the music portion, according to festival figures.

Two other large-scale, multi-day gatherings were also called off or pushed back on Friday: Emerald City Comic Con, a convention that draws thousands of people to Seattle each year, was postponed until the summer; and the Ultra Music Festival, an electronic dance music event held annually in Miami, where city officials blocked the event from going on.

As the coronavirus spreads in the United States, theaters, museums and concert halls are wary that their establishments could become petri dishes for a virus that is spread person-to-person through respiratory droplets.

Mariah Carey postponed her concert in Hawaii. The new James Bond movie, No Time to Die, was delayed, a move that prompted many in the film industry to guess that studios would do the same with other films. But thus far, no other release date changes have been announced in the United States.

New York City pleads for more tests.

New York City officials pleaded in a letter to the federal government on Friday to send more test kits for the new coronavirus, saying that the citys limited capacity to test for the virus had impeded our ability to beat back this epidemic.

As of noon on Friday, fewer than 100 people had been tested for the coronavirus in New York City over the past month, according to the citys Department of Health, even as concerns grew that the virus was circulating largely undetected.

State officials said on Friday that so far 44 people in the state had tested positive for the illness the majority in New Rochelle, just north of New York City. Officials conceded there were likely far more.

I think its fair to say we have no idea how many New Yorkers have been infected with this virus without knowing it, a New York City councilman, Mark Levine, who heads the City Councils Health Committee, said.

Demetre Daskalakis, a deputy commissioner in the Department of Health, said on Thursday afternoon that New York City presently only had enough supply for around a thousand people before running out.

The citys letter on Friday to top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that the limited number of tests was already undermining the citys efforts, citing slow federal action.

Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Friday that the C.D.C. had sent enough tests to public health labs across the country for 75,000 people, and that efforts were underway to help the private sector and hospitals start testing for the virus.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Public Health Laboratories, Michelle Forman, said there were about 72 public health laboratories that are presently testing for the new coronavirus. We are not aware of any widespread testing shortages, she said.

Americans have struggled to make sense of conflicting information from official authorities, including President Trump and members of his own cabinet. Vice President Mike Pence, who previously vowed that any American could be tested, conceded on Thursday that we dont have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.

The lack of testing around the country is affecting nursing homes in an unexpected way.

An executive with the American Health Care Association, a trade group representing most of the nations 15,700 nursing homes, warned that staff members were far more likely to use protective gear with patients showing any sign of respiratory illness even as the public is buying masks and the supply chain from China has dwindled.

Nursing homes everywhere around the country had begun complaining about shortages of masks and gowns, the executive, David Gifford, said.

Global markets extend their decline.

Stocks fell again on Friday, and investors rushed to the safety of government bonds, as Wall Street was gripped by another wave of panic over the coronavirus.

The most dramatic move in financial markets on Friday was a sharp drop in yields on government bonds. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note sank briefly below 0.7 percent for the first time. Yields move inversely to bond prices, and their slide has come as investors have fled risky investments and put their money into low-interest but safe Treasury bonds.

The S&P 500 stock index was down 4 percent in late afternoon, before making up some ground to close down 1.7 percent.

A strong report on the American job market on Friday did not change the direction of the markets. The U.S. government said that employers added 273,000 jobs in February, but the data was a snapshot of a point in time when the prevailing sentiment was that the United States would remain relatively unaffected by the coronavirus.

Oil prices also sank on Friday as major producers gathered for a critical meeting to try to agree on production cuts to try to manage the falling demand for crude as concerns about coronavirus spread across the globe.

The Chinese province where the virus first appeared reaches a milestone.

Hubei, the Chinese province at the center of the coronavirus outbreak, reported on Friday that the province had no new infections outside its capital, Wuhan, confirming that Chinas new cases and deaths are increasingly concentrated in that city, while the rest of the province and the rest of the country are largely spared.

Hubei recorded 74 new infections, all in Wuhan. China also recorded 24 cases in people who had arrived from abroad, including 17 in Gansu, a northwest Chinese province. Excluding the infections in Wuhan and among arrivals from abroad, there was only one other new infection in the rest of China on Friday.

China also reported 28 deaths among those with the virus, all in Hubei Province. That was fewer than in Italy, where there were 49 deaths on Friday.

[Read: Italys coronavirus victims face death alone, with funerals postponed.]

The downward trend in China is a result of an all-out effort by the government to contain the spread of the disease. Since January, the government has enacted nationwide quarantine and travel restrictions and placed Hubei under a strict lockdown, effectively penning in 56 million people.

The new numbers reflect a steep decline from just a few weeks earlier. At one point in early February, Hubei reported more than 1,400 new cases outside Wuhan in one day.

One of the government-appointed Chinese researchers working to control the outbreak told the state-run newspaper Peoples Daily on Thursday that, based on the data, he expected Wuhan to hit zero new infections later this month.

But the harsh restrictions have also frustrated ordinary Chinese people, especially in Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak. Residents of one apartment compound in Wuhan who have been confined to their homes for weeks heckled a visiting vice premier Thursday, with some shouting from their windows: Fake! Everything is fake!

The epidemic grew at an alarming rate in Europe.

The number of infections climbed past 7,300 in Europe on Friday more than doubling in just three days.

France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and others each recorded their biggest one-day increases in cases. More than 30 European countries now have cases; 10 of them have at least 100 each.

[Analysis: Coronavirus tests Europes cohesion, alliances, and even democracy.]

A member of the French Parliament tested positive for the virus. Doctors in Britain warned that the already-strained health care system there could be overwhelmed as the outbreak grows, and the country had its second coronavirus death.

Pope Francis has had a cold for over a week, and on Thursday, a Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said that the pontiffs illness was running its due course.

He also told reporters that the Vatican was studying measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, that could affect coming activities involving the pope.

Germany, France and Spain, with the next-largest outbreaks in Europe, reported more than 1,700 cases combined, up from fewer than 1,200 on Thursday. In Switzerland, the confirmed caseload doubled, to more than 200.

Outside Europe, in Irans outbreak, one of the worlds largest, the government reported more than 4,700 infections, an increase of more than 1,200 from the day before.

Edouard Philippe, the French prime minister, announced a 15-day school closure in two regions, Oise and Haut-Rhin.

Heres what to do if you think youre sick.

The president is to travel to Atlanta after a visit to the site of a deadly tornado in Nashville and then head to Florida, where he is to headline campaign fund-raising events. He is expected to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Russia, with few confirmed cases, announces aggressive action to reassure a jittery public.

Russia, if official figures are to be believed, has waged one of the worlds most successful campaigns to halt the spread of the coronavirus, reporting just 10 cases across a vast country with 11 time zones and a border with China more than 2,600 miles long.

So it came as a surprise this week when the city authorities in Moscow suddenly announced a raft of sweeping precautionary measures.

In a decree published late Wednesday, the capitals mayor, Sergei S. Sobyanin, ordered all residents who visit China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea or other unspecified states with an unfavorable coronavirus situation to report to the municipal government upon their return to Moscow and to self-isolate for two weeks. The United States has now been added to the list.

Mr. Sobyanins decree, which declared a regime of heightened readiness for the capital, created uncertainty and dismay rather than reassurance, raising questions about why a city with just five officially reported cases had suddenly instituted such stringent controls.

The moves in Moscow follow an alarm this week in St Petersburg, Russias second-biggest city, after an Italian exchange student who returned to Russia on Feb. 29 tested positive for the virus. Fellow students in the Italians dormitory at the North-Western State Medical University said that they had been ordered not to leave the building.

Officials denied that the dormitory, which houses around 700 students, had been placed under quarantine, saying that its residents were simply under medical supervision.

The Times is publishing many articles daily on the coronavirus, which help inform this briefing. Here is a listing of the newsrooms articles from the last day.

Florida Lobster Got a Break on China Tariffs. Then Came Coronavirus.

Climate:

Coronavirus Could Slow Efforts to Cut Airlines Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Culture:

South by Southwest Is Canceled as Coronavirus Fears Scuttle Festival

From Coughing Fits to Closings, Cultural World Girds for Coronavirus

TEFAF Art Fair Carries on. But Business Isnt Usual.

Lifestyle:

The Handshake Is on Hold

Coronavirus Puts a Wrinkle in Wedding Industry

How to:

How to Help Protect a Family Member in a Nursing Home

How to Quarantine Yourself

Reporting was contributed by Peter Baker, Andrew Higgins, Declan Walsh, Michael Gold, Matt Richtel, Alan Yuhas, Adeel Hassan, Aurelien Breeden, David Halbfinger, Mohammed Najib, Marc Santora, Benjamin Mueller, Mitch Smith, Michael Levenson, Russell Goldman, Amy Qin, Elaine Yu, Javier C. Hernndez, Max Fisher, Ben Dooley, Mike Isaac, David Yaffe-Bellany, Raillan Brooks and Karen Weise.

A week ago, Mark Canliss restaurant in Seattle was offering a $135 tasting menu to a bustling dining room every night. Eileen Hornors inn on the Maine coast was booking rooms for the busy spring graduation season. And Kalena Masching, a real estate agent in California, was fielding multiple offers on a $1.2 million home.

Then the coronavirus outbreak changed everything.

Today, Mr. Canliss restaurant is preparing to become a drive-through operation serving burgers. Ms. Hornor is bleeding cash as she refunds deposits for scores of canceled reservations. And Ms. Masching is scrambling to save her sale after one offer after another fell through.

Last week, I would have told you nothing had changed, she said. This week, it has all gone to hell.

For weeks, forecasters have warned of the coronaviruss potential to disrupt the American economy. But there was little hard evidence beyond delayed shipments of goods from China and stomach-churning volatility in financial markets.

Now the effects are showing up in downtown nightspots and suburban shopping centers from coast to coast.

Not since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has a crisis enveloped so much of the economy so quickly. Broadway is dark. The college basketball tournaments are canceled and professional sports are on indefinite hold. Conferences, concerts and St. Patricks Day parades have been called off or postponed. Even Disneyland which stayed open through a recession a decade ago that wiped out millions of American jobs and trillions of dollars in wealth is shuttered.

This hits the heart of the economy, and it hits the economy on all sides, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. Its not just that were slowing down things. Were actually hitting the pause button, and there is no precedent, there is no mold for that.

The effects are being felt even in places that the outbreak itself has not yet reached. Maine had not had a single diagnosed case of the virus when Ms. Hornor learned Wednesday that Bowdoin College, which accounts for 80 percent of her business, was calling off in-person classes and sending students home. Yet by midday the next day, she had lost 84 bookings, with more cancellations all but certain. At a somber staff meeting on Thursday, she told her 10 employees that she would try to avoid layoffs but that cuts in hours were inevitable.

I have people who rely on me to be able to pay their rent, she said. Not only do I have no money coming in, Im kind of hemorrhaging cash in terms of refunds for everyone.

Now that the outbreak is hitting the consumers, the damage is all but certain to spread. JPMorgan Chase said Thursday that it expected the U.S. economy to contract in the first two quarters of the year, which would meet a common definition of a recession. A survey of prominent academic economists, also released Thursday, found that a majority thought the outbreak was likely to cause a major recession.

For caterers, function halls and others whose business depends on large groups of people gathering together, business dried up nearly overnight.

It started Tuesday, said Elizabeth Perez, the co-owner and marketing director for the Pavilion Grille in Boca Raton, Fla. They were canceling Thursday night with a dinner for 47 people, and that was the first one. Then an Ultimate Chefs dinner for 120 scheduled for March 22 was postponed. A bar mitzvah for 150 on May 30 canceled. Thats at least $10,000, Ms. Perez said. She normally employs 20 people at an event to serve food and bus tables. Since they are hourly workers, if there is no event, there is no pay.

It isnt just the outbreak itself that is causing damage. The turmoil it has caused in the financial markets is also starting to spill over into the real economy.

Last weekend, Ms. Masching, a broker with Redfin in Silicon Valley, got three offers on a $1.2 million home she had listed in Mountain View. But by Monday, two people had rescinded their offers and the third tried to back out, citing stock market losses, after her client had accepted. At the same time, she said, prospective buyers are deciding to hold back offers on the belief that the carnage could eventually lead to lower home prices.

Most of our clients are using stock for their down payment, and they dont have the purchasing power they did even two weeks ago, she said.

In much of the country, offices remain open, restaurants remain full and day-to-day life remains relatively normal, albeit with fewer handshakes and more hand washing. But in places where the virus is already widespread, the downturn is well underway.

In Seattle, the place hit hardest so far by the outbreak in the United States, the normally bustling South Lake Union neighborhood has been eerily quiet since Amazon and other tech companies with headquarters in the area told their employees to work from home. That has been a disaster for Tom Douglas, a local chef with a dozen restaurants. Business is down 90 percent from usual.

On Wednesday, Mr. Douglas told his staff that dinner service on Sunday would be the last for two or three months. He was shuttering his restaurants and laying off almost all of the roughly 800 employees. He planned to apply for unemployment himself and research federal disaster or small business loans.

This is a serious natural disaster I dont think a lot of people are thinking about it that way just because theres no winds and theres no floods, he said. But this is a real natural disaster thats affecting people at the most basic level.

The pullback from public life is sending shock waves beyond the hospitality industry. When restaurants close their doors, they no longer need tablecloths delivered by linen services or beer from local brewers. When people stop flying, they no longer need taxis to the airport or $5 bottles of water from the airport newsstand.

Baden Sports, a sporting-goods manufacturer in the Seattle suburb of Renton, provides basketballs and baseballs for youth leagues and college tournaments, many of which are now being canceled. Jake Licht, who runs the company, has imposed a hiring freeze and is drawing up a budget in preparation for a recession.

This is moving so fast, Mr. Licht said. We had meetings and planning sessions three days ago that have already been invalidated. This is an hour-by-hour management challenge.

The speed of the crisis has outpaced economists ability to track it. As the stock market gyrated in recent days, economic data most of it from February, before the outbreak was widespread in the United States continued to look rosy. Even indicators that usually serve as early-warning systems have yet to catch up: New claims for unemployment insurance actually fell last week and remain near a multidecade low.

Still, there are early signs of a crisis that is still gaining steam. Measures of consumer sentiment fell sharply in early March, and indexes of business conditions have cratered. Airlines, ports, hotels and other directly affected industries have already announced layoffs or employee furloughs. Postings for restaurant jobs were down 26 percent last week compared with the same week a year ago, according to data from the job marketplace ZipRecruiter. Job listings in catering were down 39 percent and those in aviation down 44 percent.

The behavior changes that could set off an economic cascade that will eventually be seen in the labor market are really being put into motion now, said Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter.

The workers who are feeling the effects of the pullback first are the ones least able to afford it: low-wage, hourly employees, many of whom arent paid if they miss work. Only one-third of leisure and hospitality workers have access to any paid time off, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Wallace McLeod has worked at TapWerks Ale House in Oklahoma Citys Bricktown district for five years, but he had never seen business as slow at the bar as it was on Thursday night. With 212 taps split between two stories, the pub would have been rocking with patrons heading to the Cher concert at the Chesapeake Energy Arena a few blocks away. I wouldnt be able to talk to you right now if the concert were going on, he said in an interview.

Instead, Chers event was postponed, the bar was largely empty and a night that should have brought in as much as $13,000 in sales would be lucky to reach $4,000 if the regulars toughed it out. Bartenders expecting to make over $200 for the night would be lucky to bring home $80, Mr. McLeod said which meant they, too, would rein in their spending.

You have less money, Mr. McLeod said, noting he would have to put off a birthday party for his daughter. You cant do as many things as youre used to doing.

The strength of the economy before the coronavirus hit may provide some protection. Companies that have spent recent years struggling to attract and retain workers may be reluctant to lay them off, especially if they expect a relatively rapid rebound.

Many businesses are doing whatever they can to hold on until then.

Canlis is one of Seattles highest-end restaurants, with a piano player who entertains customers at the bar and a four-course tasting menu that runs $135 a person. But when the outbreak began to spread in Seattle, business started to dry up. Mr. Canlis, one of the owners, realized that his business was one headline away from putting 100-plus employees out of a job.

So over a three-hour meeting in an apartment overlooking the city, the managers worked out a new plan. This week, the restaurant will start selling bagel sandwiches in the morning, running a drive-through serving burgers and veggie melts for lunch and delivering dinner to the doorsteps of Seattle residents.

Fine dining is not what Seattle needs right now, the restaurant said in an Instagram post announcing the change.

When an infected person touches a surface, like a door handle, there's a risk they leave viruses stuck there that can live on for two to three days. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

When an infected person touches a surface, like a door handle, there's a risk they leave viruses stuck there that can live on for two to three days.

How long can the new coronavirus live on a surface, like say, a door handle, after someone infected touches it with dirty fingers? A study out this week finds that the virus can survive on hard surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for up to 72 hours and on cardboard for up to 24 hours.

"This virus has the capability for remaining viable for days," says study author, James Lloyd-Smith, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who researches how pathogens emerge.

Although the World Health Organization had previously estimated the survival time on surfaces to be a "few hours to a few days" based on research on other coronaviruses, this is the first study by scientists at a federal laboratory to test the actual virus causing the current pandemic, SARS-CoV-2.

The study is out in preprint form and expected to be published.

Interestingly, some surfaces are less hospitable to SARS-CoV-2. For instance, the virus remained viable on copper for only about four hours.

It's useful to know how long it can stay alive of course, because the virus can contaminate surfaces when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Virus-laden respiratory droplets can land on doorknobs, elevator buttons, handrails or countertops and spread the virus to anyone who then touches these surfaces.

To test the survival time of the virus, scientists at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, part of the National Institutes of Health, conducted a series of experiments comparing the novel coronavirus with the SARS virus (a similar coronavirus that led to an outbreak back in 2003).

In the lab, "they'd pick up the virus from the surfaces that had been contaminated and then put [the virus] into cell cultures," he explains. Then the researchers documented whether the virus could infect those cells in the dish. They did this multiple times, for both the viruses, at various time points.

"Big picture, the [two viruses] look very similar to each other in terms of their stability in these environments," Lloyd-Smith says.

Lloyd-Smith says these findings establish a good ballpark estimate for the survivability of the virus on these surfaces. "In a laboratory experiment, the conditions are pretty carefully controlled and constant," he says. By comparison, "in the real world, conditions fluctuate" conditions like temperature, humidity and light. So the survivability may vary, too.

For instance, if the virus contaminates a sunny windowsill or countertop, it may not last as long.

"Ultraviolet light can be a really powerful disinfectant and we get a lot of UVA light from the sun," says Daniel Kuritzkes an infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Direct sunlight can help rapidly diminish infectivity of viruses on surfaces," he says. He was not involved in the new research.

Much is still unknown about the virus's survivability on other types of surfaces like clothing, or carpeting. Kuritzkes says that based on prior research, it seems that "flat surfaces and hard surfaces are more friendly to viruses than cloth or rough surfaces."

And how about food? "Food is probably not a major risk factor here," Kuritzkes says. That's because most infection from the new coronavirus starts with the respiratory system, not the digestive tract. So infection comes from getting the virus on your hands and then touching your own eyes, nose and mouth. "Of more concern would be utensils, and plates and cups that might be handled by a large number of people in a cafeteria setting, for example," he says.

So, what can you do to protect yourself? Well, you've likely already heard this. Wash your hands. And wipe down shared surfaces.

Follow these tips for cleaning surfaces your own and public ones.

Wipe right: Use ammonia or alcohol-based products. Skip the baby wipes

Maintaining awareness of the many surfaces you touch during the day and cleaning them with approved products will help curb the spread of the coronavirus. Max Posner/NPR hide caption

"The good thing about COVID-19 is that it does not require any unique cleaning chemicals to disinfect hands and surfaces," says Andrew Janowski, an infectious disease expert at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children's Hospital. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the current coronavirus,

Good old-fashioned soap and water does the trick.

You can also use a wipe, but make sure you use an alcohol-based wipe, not baby wipes, which may not be effective, Janowski says.

And given that wipes are hard to come by at many stores at the moment, you can instead buy an EPA-registered disinfecting spray, such as one on this list from the Center for Biocide Chemistries, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by Dr. David Warren, an infectious disease specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Or make a bleach-based spray yourself. You can make a DIY cleaning spray by mixing 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water, according to the CDC.

Wash. Your. Hands. (Seriously!)

Yes, you've heard it a hundred times. So do it, already! Especially after you've been out in public, touching a lot of surfaces. Lather up with soap and scrub for 20 seconds. (Two times the "Happy Birthday" song, or sing "Baby Shark" you'll get midway through Daddy Shark).

And be thorough. Spend some time rubbing the backs of your hands as well as the front, interlace your fingers and pull them through, soap up each thumb with the opposite hand and, finally, to keep your fingernails virus-free, lightly scratch them against your palm. (For more detail, listen to NPR Short Wave's Maddie Sofia give a lesson here.)

Hand-washing is so important that if everyone followed good hand-washing hygiene, it could prevent an estimated 1 in 5 respiratory infections, according to the CDC that's the equivalent of about 6 million cases of the flu this year.

Hand sanitizer: DIY in a pinch?

Hand sanitizer is effective at killing viruses, too, although hand-washing is preferred, according to the CDC. If you can't get to a sink, hand sanitizer is a good backup plan just make sure it's at least 60% alcohol.

Given the shortage of hand sanitizers in some stores and reports of price-gouging online, there's lots of interest in DIY hand sanitizer. We've seen lots of recipes calling for a combination of rubbing alcohol and aloe vera gel, like this one from Wired.

"On paper, if a recipe can maintain the alcohol concentration above 60%, it should be effective against SARS-COV-2," says Andrew Janowski, but he says getting it just right might be trickier than you think. If in doubt when making these homemade sanitizers, soap and water are still effective against the virus.

Your smartphone is like a third hand. Wipe it down

One way to fend off germs: Clean your phone. Your phone is your "third hand"; one that harbors the multitude of germs and bacteria we come into contact with each day. Photo Illustration by Max Posner/NPR hide caption

One way to fend off germs: Clean your phone. Your phone is your "third hand"; one that harbors the multitude of germs and bacteria we come into contact with each day.

So you've just washed your hands and you're feeling squeaky clean. Then you pick up your cellphone, and guess what? It's covered with potential pathogens.

"Studies have shown that smartphones surfaces are covered in bacteria, including bacteria that can cause serious infections like Staphylococcus species," says Judy Guzman-Cottrill, an infectious disease expert at Oregon Health & Science University.

And phones are often held close to the eyes, nose and mouth, where germs can enter the body. So wipe it down often.

And you don't have to rub down your phone for long if you're using an alcohol-based sanitizer. "Just a few seconds should be sufficient to disinfect," says Janowski.

Try this stinky trick to stop touching your face

Having trouble remembering not to touch your face? Try rubbing a raw onion after hand-washing. Photo Illustration by Max Posner/NPR hide caption

Your face offers multiple entry points for the virus. So every time you touch your eyes, nose and mouth with grubby hands, you risk infection.

"If you have touched a table or a doorknob or some surface contaminated [with the virus] and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, you have a chance of inoculating yourself with the virus," Kuritzkes says.

But, as a matter of habit, most of us touch our faces multiple times an hour without even realizing it.

So, here's an idea. "After you wash your hands really well, touch a piece of raw onion," says Catherine Belling of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. With this strong smell on your fingers, "you'll notice when you touch your face," she says. Sure, it may make you a tad antisocial, but it could be a good way to train yourself to touch less.

Volunteers deliver meals to the homes of quarantined students who attend a school for children with significant disabilities on Chicago's north side. USA TODAY

CHICAGO By day fiveof her at-home quarantine, Emma Burkhalter lost it.

Shealready had done manicures and pedicures with her mom, readbooks and watched her favorite shows on Disney+. But the sudden halt to allnormal school and social activities since March 7 finally bubbled up to aphysical outburst, one of many her mom anticipates subduingwhile Burkhalter stays homefor two weeks because an aideat her school tested positive for the coronavirus.

"My daughter is combatant because she can't go out and play," said Erin Folan, the mother of Burkhalter, who is 20 and has an intellectual disability.

As the pace of virus-related school closures quickens nationwide,theshuttered Jacqueline B. Vaughn Occupational High School, which serves students with special needs in Chicago,has become an extraordinary test case for the restrictive new reality soon to be felt by millions of kids and familiesacross the country.

Before Friday, Vaughnwas the first and only Chicago Public School to close because of the virus. Staff and students were ordered to quarantine themselves at home and monitor their healthfrom March 7 to March 19.Now the school's more than 200 students and their families will be away from school even longer.

Emma Burkhalter, a 20-year-old student, poses in her Portage Park, Illinois home on March 11, 2020 while under quarantine from Vaughn Occupational High School. The Northwest Side special education school has shut down until March 18 and ordered its students into home-based quarantine after a school aide infected with coronavirus worked closely with students.(Photo: Camille C. Fine for USA TODAY)

Twenty-six states and counting, including Illinois,have ordered public schools to shut down for two weeks or more to contain the spread ofCOVID-19. Formany, that will start Monday, though Illinois' shutdown, which includes Chicago, will begin Tuesday.The state closures, alongwith those of individual districts, will affectat least 29.5million students nationwide more than half of American schoolchildren according to a tally kept by Education Week magazine. The unprecedented disruption will upendwork schedules, day care and social activitiesand challenge many familiesfinancially.

School closings: Growing number of states and large districts shut all K-12 schools

Most of Vaughn's students ordered to stay homecannot be left alone, which means parents are juggling schedules or missing work entirely to care for their children. Friends who usually come by to help are keeping their distance, increasing the pressure on families and adding to the social stigma of those whohave been near someone with the virus.

One of the most immediate effects: The families are in a bind financially and running low on supplies.Fundraising drives to raise money for Vaughn's parents, and to deliver food and cleaning suppliesto their homes, have been organized by both Chicago Public Schools and state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, a Democrat, who lives near the school.

Pedestrians walk by Vaughn Occupational High School in Chicago, Illinois on March 11, 2020.(Photo: Camille C. Fine for USA TODAY)

The school's closure is also putting a halt to the students' academic progress.Vaughn's students require a lot of one-on-one help, which limits their ability to learn online the kind of programs some schoolsare planning to implement as their buildingsshut down.

Because Vaughn students have potentially been exposed to someone with the virus, they are not supposed to leave their homes or attend therapy sessions or regular group activities. That hasleftparents struggling to find ways to entertain their children.

"You can't Netflix them all day," said David Wisneski, whose daughter, a Vaughn student, has anintellectual disability.

"I wish we had more guidance on how to better engage our special-needs kids, since e-learning is not an option," Wisneski said. "How can we get help?"

How to talk to kids about coronavirus: Stay honest and simple to avoid anxiety

Folan, a bartending manager, had to take off all week to care for her daughter. Afterday five of the quarantine, she was still forgetting what activities wereoff-limits.

"I was going to take her to the library when she ran out of books, but then I thought, 'Nope, I can't do that either,' " she said.

Vaughn epitomizes how little is known about how thevirus spreads and infects people.

Unlike schools nationwidethat preemptively shut downor closed because of aconfirmedinfection in the community, Vaughn had an aide with theinfection working side-by-side with students and staff in the building.

Donations are left in the office of Illinois State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-19th District, to be delivered to Vaughn Occupational High School students who were ordered into home-based quarantine.(Photo: Camille C. Fine for USA TODAY)

Cruise ship infections: Grand Princess produced sixth coronavirus case in Illinois

The aide, a woman in her 50s, had been on a Grand Princess cruise with confirmed cases of the virus, but she didn't show symptoms until muchlater. After that, two of her family members contracted the virus.

Anyone at Vaughn around the time the aide was in the buildingwas ordered to quarantine themselves at home, starting March 7.

Many worried that Vaughn kids might be more susceptible than other children to contracting the virus, as some students have respiratory issues.Yet as of Friday, no other students or staff showed symptoms. Staff and students on quarantine must take theirtemperature twice a day and send the readingsto the state health department.

Pull vulnerable kids out of school?As coronavirus sweeps country, parents worry about at-risk kids

"Currently, we're celebrating and also relieved that we have no other positive cases yet," said Noel McNally, Vaughn's principal.

While students muststay at home, their family members can come and go freely.

Folan said she's still surprised that Vaughn's students and staff are all healthy.

"It'sthe worst population for something like this to happen, because a lot of our kids don't knowhow to blow their noses or wash their hands properly, and theyre constantly touching each other. When they sneeze it goes everywhere," she said.

Are kids at risk?WHO report says no, but some doctors aren't so sure

Rose McDonough sorts through donations delivered to her door on March 11, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Her son Michael McDonough Jr. is a student at Vaughn Occupational.(Photo: Camille C. Fine for USA TODAY)

Schools in America serve as more than just education centers they feed more than 20 million children withfree or reduced-price meals.

About 75% of Vaughn's students come from low-income familieswho rely on those meals.Plus, the quarantine has put additional pressure on families: Some parents said that taking off work to care for their children is putting their job at risk.

Guadalupe Tafolla, a mother of a Vaughn student, had to take off from her job at McDonald's to care for her daughter. Friends she usually relies on for help, she said in an interview in Spanish, are afraid to come to the house.

Volunteer for Illinois State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-19th District, Catherine Colombo leaves Lapointes office to deliver food and toiletries to Vaughn Occupational High School student Michael McDonough Jr. and his family.(Photo: Camille C. Fine for USA TODAY)

"It'shard because I'm a single mother and I have to care for my daughter," she said.

The district has hustled to funnel resources to Vaughn families. As of midweek, the district had packaged at least 500 boxes of food for pickup or delivery tostudents' families. That level of support will be hard to replicate at scale in low-income districts across the country as schools close.

McNally, who has been carrying out his principal duties from home during his own quarantine,said he's been contacted by parents who can't work and who are worried about losing their jobs. He said he and the district are offering to document the circumstances to employers so their parents can stay employed.

"This is beyond the scope of CPS," McNally said. "What's the federal support for businesses dropping staffing?"

Some districts across the countryare makingplans to offeronline instruction to students during the closures.

But many have instead ordered what amounts to an extended spring break. That's the plan for manyimpoverished districts,because it's difficult to guarantee equal access to instruction to low-income families who may not have the computers and high-speed internetenjoyed by higher-income households.

"There's no school district in thecountry that's prepared to offer online instruction that parallels what happens face to face in classrooms," said Aaron Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City.

"There are tremendous inequalities among families when it comes to access and availability of technological tools," he added.

Some districts, such as Los Angeles Unified and Newark Public Schools in New Jersey, are sending students home with packets of material to work through.

Federal lawsays even in times of crisis, students with disabilitiesneed equal access to afree and appropriate public education. But the realities of doing that now are very difficult, school leaders say.

"I have to reiterate how different the Vaughn environment is," Janice Jackson, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said in a news conference last week."Many require the assistance of special education teachers to do their work, so we cant expect the same thing we do in other schools with take-home assignments."

Bovena Stasiak, a Vaughn parent whose son isquarantined at home, will continue to look for ways to occupy him during the extended break. It's hard because even long walks are out, she said. He's bored. Heloves to talk to people and go places, Stasiak said, but that's off limits, too.

"I dont want him to put anyone in danger," she said.

Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.

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Mike Pence, commander of the U.S. coronavirus task force for some reason. Photo: ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the United States should brace for a domestic coronavirus outbreak, with the director of its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases explaining that its not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more, but a question of when this will happen. Globally, more than 167,400 cases of this pneumonia-like disease have been reported across every continent except Antarctica, with at least 6,329 deaths so far. Last week, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and President Trump declared a national state of emergency. So far, at least 66 American patients with the virus have died.

Heres everything we know about the spread of the virus in the U.S. so far.

As of March 16, there were at least 3,602 confirmed cases of COVID-19 the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in the U.S. In the past few days, the number of confirmed cases has accelerated dramatically, with over 1,100 new cases announced since Friday morning. However, officials have warned that due to delays in testing, the number of infected individuals is likely much higher. Most of the initial cases were people who recently traveled to China or were released from quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which experienced an outbreak last month. Increasingly, though, new cases have cropped up in people who have no known association with outbreak epicenters, suggesting that the virus has been spreading undetected through person-to-person contact for weeks.

COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in 49 states and Washington, D.C., with the largest outbreaks in Washington State, New York, and California. As of Monday morning, in Washington State, 42 American patients with the virus had died. Twenty-seven of those deaths have been linked to an outbreak of COVID-19 at a long-term-care facility, the Life Care Center, in Kirkland, Washington.

As of Monday morning, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York rose to 732, with six confirmed deaths from the virus.

Over the weekend, officials in many states ramped up restrictions on large gatherings. On Sunday, the CDC recommended a ban on all gatherings of 50 people or more including weddings, festivals, parades, concerts, sporting events, and concerts for the next eight weeks. Restaurants and bars were ordered closed in New York City, Massachusetts, Ohio, Washington, Puerto Rico, and parts of California. (In some places, restaurants can remain open for takeout and delivery, or if they significantly reduce their occupancy. Other cities, including Los Angeles, have closed movie theaters and gyms as well.)

Officials in a growing number of cities and states have announced that schools will close this week, including in New York City, Massachusetts, Oregon, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and Kentucky. Some schools in California, Washington State, and Texas have closed as well. In New York City, the largest school district in the country, public schools will remain closed until at least April 20, though Mayor Bill de Blasio said there was a strong chance they would not reopen before the end of the school year. The mayor said that some schools will reopen as enrichment centers to provide services to vulnerable children, including homeless students and those with special needs, and that the city would open centers to provide child care for the children of health-care and emergency workers.

Officials in a number of states have encouraged companies to allow employees to telecommute if possible, and an increasing number of colleges and universities have suspended in-person classes, with some schools asking students not to return to campus after spring break. Many churches have canceled services, and the NBA has suspended its season after a player tested positive for the virus. Experts have called on nursing homes to limit nonessential social visits due to the high risk of transmission.

In a press conference last week, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency and said that coronavirus could impact daily life in the city for the next six months. De Blasio also cautioned New Yorkers about the spread of misinformation: Despite rumors to the contrary, as of Monday morning, elected officials had not called for shutting down mass transit or roadways, which are considered necessary to ensure that health-care systems continue to operate. New Yorkers can text COVID to 692692 for accurate updates.

An increasing number of New York City institutions have closed to the public, including Broadway theaters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Met Opera, and the citys annual St. Patricks Day Parade has been postponed. Many New York talk shows have begun taping without studio audiences, with some suspending production altogether.

Last week, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced a containment zone in New Rochelle, a New York City suburb with one of the countrys largest outbreaks of COVID-19, where the National Guard has been deployed to clean facilities and deliver food to quarantined residents. Cuomo has also warned that the New York hospital system may soon be overwhelmed by the number of coronavirus cases, and has requested that the Army Corps of Engineers be deployed to New York to build more hospital beds.

On Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus. So what does that mean, exactly? Trump declared the emergency under the Stafford Act, which effectively frees up federal emergency management funds to be used for relief. On Friday, Trump said that the declaration would give him the authority to use up to $50 billion in federal funds to help states and territories fight the spread of coronavirus.

Trump also announced plans to accelerate and expand access to coronavirus testing, saying that millions of tests for the virus would be made available, though he added that he did not think that many would be necessary. He gave more authority to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, who will now be able to lift restrictions on doctors and hospitals to give them more flexibility in fighting the virus, including the ability to treat patients remotely. The president urged states to set up emergency operations centers effective immediately, and also announced that he would waive interest on student loans.

Last month, President Donald Trump put Vice-President Mike Pence a man with a frankly dismal track record in public health in charge of the coronavirus response, assuring the public that the White House is very, very ready for this.

The Trump administration has since announced a number of travel restrictions. Last week, President Trump barred entry of all foreign nationals who have been in high-risk countries, including China, Iran, and much of Europe, within the last 14 days. As of March 13, American citizens and permanent residents who are returning to the U.S. from those areas are required to fly through one of 13 airports, listed here. The State Department has issued an advisory telling Americans to reconsider travel to all foreign countries, and has also advised Americans, especially those who are older or have existing medical conditions, to avoid cruises at this time.

There have been many issues with the availability and accuracy of the coronavirus test within U.S. borders. Some people say theyve been denied tests. Indeed, the criteria for getting tested were initially prohibitively narrow: Previous guidance stated it should be limited only to those who may have come into direct contact with the virus, whether by through a hot spot of contagion or an infected individual. Though Pence has since announced that anyone in the country can be tested for coronavirus, subject to doctors orders, theres still been widespread confusion, and government coronavirus hotlines have reportedly been inundated with calls.

The U.S. House and Senate recently reached a deal to provide $8.3 billion in emergency funding to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which has been approved by the Senate. According to the WashingtonPost, the money will go toward the development of a vaccine, public-health funding, medical supplies, and research of coronavirus in other countries. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has said it will take up to 18 months to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

Early Saturday morning, the House passed a sweeping aid package for people affected by the coronavirus, and the Senate is expected to vote on the measure this week. The package would establish paid emergency leave for some American workers, expand food assistance, and offer free coronavirus testing.

In most cases, COVID-19 is not fatal, but it appears to pose the greatest risk to elderly people and those with preexisting conditions that compromise their immune systems. The New York Times reports that among those who have died in the U.S., almost all have been in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. (Doctors and medical workers may also be at greater risk, due to their higher-than-average odds of exposure.) Because the CDC anticipates a sharp uptick in domestic transmission, though, it is urging people to prepare for the worst: Stock up on supplies medicine, non-perishable foods, toilet paper, etc. and fastidiously wash your hands. (Heres our guide to protecting yourself.)

Face masks have been selling out online and in stores, but the surgeon general has pleaded with people to stop buying them. Surgical masks dont do much to keep out disease-spreading particles, and the masks that do seem to help N95 facial respirators are recommended only for people who are already infected, or for health-care workers and caregivers. People wearing masks as a preventive measure may be taking valuable and limited resources away from those who actually need them. If you do find yourself in need of an N95 respirator, and you have creative facial hair, the CDC also has thoughts on which mustache styles will be safest in a pandemic.

If you have symptoms associated with coronavirus coughing, fever, respiratory issues call your doctor before simply showing up at their office: The virus is highly contagious and you want to limit the possibility of spreading it, bearing in mind that right now, the odds are better that you simply have a cold or the flu. (Which is also serious, and many health experts would advise you to get a flu shot.) If you are sick, the CDC recommends that you stay home and self-isolate, confining yourself to one room as much as possible and wearing a face mask when you have to interact with others. Wash your hands frequently soap and water and at least 20 seconds of scrubbing and avoid touching shared household items, cleaning high-touch surfaces (like your phone) regularly. Your health-care provider and even local health department will help you determine how long its appropriate for you to keep up these precautions.

Regardless of whether or not you have symptoms, though, keep your hands clean, and seriously, stop touching your face.

This post has been updated.

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BEIJING China is pushing a new theory about the origins of the coronavirus: It is an American disease that might have been introduced by members of the United States Army who visited Wuhan in October.

There is not a shred of evidence to support that, but the notion received an official endorsement from Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose spokesman accused American officials of not coming clean about what they know about the disease.

The intentional spreading of an unfounded conspiracy theory which recirculated on Chinas tightly controlled internet on Friday punctuated a downward spiral in relations between the two countries that has been fueled by the basest instincts of officials on both sides.

The insinuation came in a series of posts on Twitter by Zhao Lijian, a ministry spokesman who has made good use of the platform, which is blocked in China, to push a newly aggressive, and hawkish, diplomatic strategy. It is most likely intended to deflect attention from Chinas own missteps in the early weeks of the epidemic by sowing confusion or, at least, uncertainty at home and abroad.

Mr. Zhaos posts appeared to be a retort to similarly unsubstantiated theories about the origins of the outbreak that have spread in the United States. Senior officials there have called the epidemic the Wuhan virus, and at least one senator hinted darkly that the epidemic began with the leak of a Chinese biological weapon.

[Read: Two women fell sick from the coronavirus. One survived.]

The conspiracy theories are a new, low front in what they clearly perceive as a global competition over the narrative of this crisis, said Julian B. Gewirtz, a scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard.

There are a few Chinese officials who appear to have gone to the Donald J. Trump School of Diplomacy, added Mr. Gewirtz, who recently published a paper on Chinas handling of the AIDS epidemic, after a similar disinformation campaign. This small cadre of high-volume Chinese officials dont seem to realize that peddling conspiracy theories is totally self-defeating for China, at a moment when it wants to be seen as a positive contributor around the world.

The circulation of disinformation is not a new tactic for the Communist Party state. The United States, in particular, is often a foil of Chinese propaganda efforts. Last year, Beijing explicitly accused the American government of supporting public protests in Hong Kong in an effort to weaken the partys rule.

The old tactic has been amplified by more combative public diplomacy and a new embrace of a social media platform that is blocked in China to spread a message abroad.

Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California at San Diego who studies Chinese politics, said that while the campaign was very likely an attempt to distract and deflect blame, a more worrisome possibility was that some officials fabricated the idea and persuaded top leaders to believe it.

If the leadership really believes in the culpability of the U.S. government, he warned, it may behave in a way that dramatically worsens the bilateral relationship.

Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, has faced sharp criticism for the governments initial handling of the outbreak, even at home. Public anger erupted in February when a doctor who was punished for warning his colleagues about the coronavirus died, prompting censors to redouble their efforts to stifle public criticism.

Chinese officials have repeatedly urged officials in other countries not to politicize what is a public health emergency. Conservatives in the United States, in particular, have latched on to loaded terms that have been criticized for stigmatizing the Chinese people. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referred to the Wuhan virus, while Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, called it the Chinese coronavirus.

In response, Chinese officials and state news media have stepped up their criticism of American officials comments.

Only days before Mr. Zhaos latest post, the Xinhua news agency published a commentary denouncing Washingtons poisonous coronavirus politics and warning that spreading rumors simply encouraged fear, division and hate.

Their dangerously irresponsible statements are highly counterproductive at this drastic hour that demands solidarity and cooperation, the commentary, written by Gao Wencheng, said, and could be much more menacing than the virus itself.

The coronavirus, according to all evidence, emanated from Wuhan, China, in late December. Scientists have not yet identified a patient zero or a precise source of the virus, though preliminary studies have linked it to a virus in bats that passed through another mammal before infecting humans.

A senior official of Chinas National Health Commission, Liang Wannian, said at a briefing in Beijing last month that the likely carrier was a pangolin, an endangered species that is trafficked almost exclusively to China for its meat and for its scales, which are prized for use in traditional medicine.

The first cluster of patients was reported at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, and studies have since suggested that the virus could have been introduced there by someone already infected. Wuhan and the surrounding province of Hubei account for the overwhelming amount of cases and deaths, so there is no scientific reason to believe the virus began elsewhere.

Mr. Zhaos assertion began with a post linking to a video of the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert R. Redfield, testifying before the House on Wednesday and suggesting that some flu deaths might have been caused by the coronavirus.

When did patient zero begin in US? Mr. Zhao wrote on Twitter, first in English and separately in Chinese. How many people are infected. What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your date! US owe us an explanation.

Mr. Zhao appeared to refer to the Military World Games, which were held in Wuhan in October. The Pentagon sent 17 teams with more than 280 athletes and other staff members to the event, well before any reported outbreaks. The Pentagon has had confirmed cases in South Korea and Italy and is bracing for more to emerge, but no illnesses have been tied to American service members from October.

Mr. Zhaos remarks were spread on Chinas most prominent social media platform, Weibo, under a hashtag: #ZhaoLijianPostedFiveTweetsinaRowQuestioningAmerica. By late afternoon on Friday, that hashtag had been viewed more than 160 million times, along with screenshots of the original Twitter posts.

The State Department summoned the Chinese ambassador on Friday to protest Mr. Zhaos comments, officials in the Trump administration said.

At the regular briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, another spokesman, Geng Shuang, sidestepped three questions about whether Mr. Zhaos suggestion had politicized the crisis and reflected official Chinese policy.

He instead noted the statements made by American officials and lawmakers to smear and attack China.

We are firmly opposed to this, he said. In fact, the international community, including the United States at home, have different views on the source of the virus. What I have been saying in recent days is that the Chinese side always believed that this is a scientific issue and requires scientific and professional opinions.

Claire Fu contributed research.

"Bottom line, it's going to get worse," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Fauci testified Wednesday at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption

"Bottom line, it's going to get worse," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Fauci testified Wednesday at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Updated at 3:50 p.m. ET

The coronavirus outbreak has now infected more than 1,000 people in nearly 40 U.S. states and the country's top authority on infectious diseases says things will only get worse.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warns that the number of cases of the COVID-19 viral disease will continue to grow because containment measures and contact tracing have failed to prevent community spread of the virus.

"Is the worst yet to come, Dr. Fauci?" Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, asked Fauci on Wednesday.

"Yes, it is," Fauci replied.

While this coronavirus is being contained in some respects, he testified, the U.S. is seeing more cases emerge through community spread as well as international travel.

"I can say we will see more cases, and things will get worse than they are right now," Fauci said. "How much worse we'll get will depend on our ability to do two things: to contain the influx of people who are infected coming from the outside, and the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country."

He added: "Bottom line, it's going to get worse."

Any potential vaccines for the virus are still at least a year or a year and a half away, Fauci said.

Health officials are now working to bolster coronavirus testing in the U.S., Fauci said: "We need to know how many people ... are infected, as we say, under the radar screen."

Local and state health officials, desperate to stop the coronavirus from spreading in hard-hit areas, are enacting bans on public gatherings, closing schools and encouraging people to avoid close contact with others. Their goal is to slow down the virus as they work concurrently to contain it.

A few areas are also widening the availability of COVID-19 testing including offering drive-up service. Until this week, several U.S. states did not have labs that could test for the virus. Federal officials say the role of local agencies will become only more important.

"As we experience the growing community spread in the United States, the burden of confronting this outbreak is shifting to states and local health professionals on the front lines," the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, said during Wednesday's committee hearing.

The U.S. public health system currently has the capacity to test up to 75,000 people, Redfield said.

The country's hot spots remain Washington state (273 cases as of Wednesday morning), New York (176 cases) and California (157 cases). The coronavirus has killed at least 31 people in the U.S. most of them in Washington. Deaths have also been reported in California, Florida, New Jersey and South Dakota.

Those COVID-19 numbers come from a dashboard created by Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, which tracks the data nearly in real time. Those figures have been more up to date than the public tally kept by the CDC, which updates its national map at noon ET each day using numbers from 4 p.m. the previous afternoon.

The CDC maintains a separate count for the nearly 50 infected Americans who were repatriated to the U.S. from Wuhan, China, and Yokohama, Japan.

Coronavirus symptoms and prevention

To prevent the coronavirus from spreading, the CDC recommends washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using a hand sanitizer if a sink isn't available. The World Health Organization says people should wear face masks only if they're sick or caring for someone who is.

"For most people, COVID-19 infection will cause mild illness; however, it can make some people very ill and, in some people, it can be fatal," the WHO says. "Older people, and those with pre-existing medical conditions (such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease or diabetes) are at risk for severe disease."

The most common symptoms of COVID-19, according to a recent WHO report that draws on more than 70,000 cases in China, are the following: fever (in 88% of cases), dry cough (68%), fatigue (38%) and sputum/phlegm production (33%).

Shortness of breath occurred in nearly 20% of cases, and about 13% had a sore throat or headache, the WHO said.

SEATTLE Two emergency medicine doctors, in New Jersey and Washington State, are in critical condition as a result of coronavirus, reinforcing concerns that the nations front-line medical workers are becoming especially vulnerable to the virus, the American College of Emergency Physicians said.

A lot of us think that despite everything we do, we will probably be exposed, said Dr. William Jaquis, the chair of the group. Still, he said, The first reported case certainly sends a shock wave through the community.

Emergency rooms represent a busy intake point for hospitals, where patients come in with symptoms but no diagnosis. As the coronavirus spreads during the typical flu season, emergency physicians are triaging large numbers of patients around the country with symptoms that could be the virus.

As compared to anyone else at a hospital, you are operating with the most incomplete information, said Dr. Angela Fusaro, an emergency doctor in Atlanta.

One of the ill physicians, a man in his 40s, is a doctor at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, Wash., a hospital near Seattle which has seen one of the largest concentrations of cases in the United States.

EvergreenHealth is providing care for one of our physicians who has a confirmed case of Covid-19. He is in critical condition but stable, the hospital said in a statement.

Dr. Jaquis said it appeared that the doctor had access to adequate protective equipment. This was an area with an outbreak, so they were expecting and prepared. That obviously makes us more nervous.

The other physician, a doctor in his 70s in Paterson, N.J., was also in isolation in intensive care. The doctor led his institutions emergency preparedness and was admitted to the hospital several days ago with upper respiratory problems, the physicians group said.

The nationwide shortage of N-95 protective masks has been concerning to doctors, who increasingly feel the need to use them in more situations to stay safe, Dr. Jaquis said.

Some emergency departments are adapting their facilities to minimize the risk to health care providers and other patients, opening tents to triage patients outside their buildings and creating separate entrances for patients and doctors, who do not typically wear protective gear as they come and go.

Emergency doctors at times must tend to patients before their virus risk is assessed, and may have a need, such as a major injury, that needs urgent attention, Dr. Fusaro said. Things that might be necessary to stabilize their life are pretty intimate, she said. If you have to put in a breathing tube, you are going to be right up against them. You cant practice that type of medicine from afar.

Senate Democrats on Thursday sought assurances from Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that his department would not interfere with undocumented immigrants seeking medical attention.

This is a public health and safety issue that, if anything else, puts all of our communities at risk, Senator Jacky Rosen, Democrat of Nevada, said. Will the department refrain from apprehending individuals based solely on their immigration status while theyre seeking care?

Mr. Cuccinelli said ICE does not conduct enforcement at health care facilities absent single case exigent circumstances.

But immigrant advocates say that stepped-up enforcement could deter people from seeking medical care.

On Wednesday, nine Democratic senators wrote a letter to President Trump and members of his coronavirus task force urging the agency to halt civil immigration enforcement in or around health care facilities.

The senators also requested that Homeland Security publicly state that the administrations new wealth test, known as the public charge rule, would not penalize immigrants who receive treatment for coronavirus symptoms by labeling them public charges, thus barring their paths to green cards.

We cannot allow the fear this ill-considered rule creates to scare families away from getting the help that they may need if they come into contact with people, with the coronavirus, the Democrats said in the letter.

Reporting was contributed by Mike Baker, Rick Gladstone, Katie Robertson, Vindu Goel, Melissa Eddy, Michael Wolgelenter, Marc Santora, Niki Kitsantonis, Mitch Smith, Sarah Mervosh, Davey Alba, Tiffany May, Claire Fu, Elaine Yu, Farah Stockman, Ed Shanahan, Neil Vigdor, Lauretta Charlton, James Gorman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Matt Richtel, Mitch Smith, Amy Harmon, Michael Gold, Ben Dooley, Richard Prez-Pea, Azi Paybarah, Joseph Goldstein and Kirk Johnson.