Coronavirus live updates: Donald Trump deploys National Guard to fight COVID-19

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is preparing to lift New Zealand’s coronavirus response to level 4, which will see schools, universities and all non-essential businesses closed.

“Now is the time to put our plans into action. We are fortunate to be in some way behind the majority of overseas countries in terms of cases … but act now or risk the virus taking hold,” she said.

The PM said New Zealand was now at alert level 3, effective immediately.

In 48 hours this alert level will be raised to level 4, she said. Level 4 means people will be instructed to stay at home, schools and universities will be closed, as well as non-essential businesses, major reprioritisation of health services, and severely limited travel.

This does not affect essential services like supermarkets and pharmacies, although she stressed physical distancing should still be practised in these cases.

“All indoor and outdoor events cannot proceed. In short, we are all now preparing as a nation to go into self-isolation in the same way we have seen other countries do. Staying at home is essential.”

She added: “You can leave your home for fresh air, a walk, take your children outside, but remember the simple principle: it must be solitary.”

There have been 36 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours in New Zealand, bringing the country’s total number to 102 confirmed cases.

Two of those cases are now considered community transmission cases.

Donald Trump is now speaking live from Washington DC.

He said the coronavirus is “the hidden enemy”, stressing that social distancing measures are “so important… defeating this unseen enemy requires the commitment of every single American”.

He indicated the National Guard will be deployed to some of the hardest-hit states, including New York, California and Washington. Additional supplies, including extra beds and face masks, will also go to these three states over the next 48 hours.

This will come at no cost to the governors of those areas, he said.

The President added that the US economy will “skyrocket” once the “war” against the virus is won.

His press conference comes shortly after he told state governors not to blame the White House for an inadequate supply of medical equipment, saying his administration is “not responsible for their shortcomings”.

Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker claimed the Trump administration isn’t doing enough to address shortages in coronavirus testing kits and other equipment, saying the states are “all competing with each other”.

“We have received some PPE (protective personal equipment) in the past couple of weeks – about a quarter of what was an original request,’ he said in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union overnight.

“We’re going to receive another shipment of PPE later today or tomorrow from FEMA – but it’s a fraction still of what we requested,” he continued. “We need millions of masks and hundreds of thousands of gowns and gloves and the rest.

“Unfortunately, we’re getting, still, just a fraction of that. So we’re out on the open market, competing for these items that we so badly need and we’re succeeding in some ways but we still need more.”

He later hit back at Mr Trump’s tweet, telling the President to “do your job”.

The US has reported over 32,000 COVID-19 infections, with 414 deaths.

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has reportedly tested positive for coronavirus while in prison for rape and sexual assault.

The 68-year-old is one of two inmates in the maximum-security Erie County prison who have tested positive, officials told CNHI newspapers.

According to Page Six, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision wouldn’t confirm the report, citing federal health-care privacy law, but confirmed that two inmates at Wende had tested positive for COVID-19.

Harvey had just arrived at Wende from Rikers Island, where there is currently a coronavirus outbreak.

It has been reported that 21 inmates and another 17 workers at Rikers have tested positive for COVID-19.

The prison is currently monitoring 58 inmates.

France’s coronavirus death toll has risen by 112 to 674, according to the country’s health officials.

The number of confirmed infections increased by 1,559 to 16,018, Reuters reports.

The International Olympic Committee is now considering whether to postpone or alter the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, laying out a deadline for its decision.

In a letter to athletes, IOC president Thomas Bach said the IOC had ruled out cancelling the Games altogether, but is considering alternative ways to stage the event.

Bach said himself and key stakeholders are “confident” that a final decision will be made within four weeks.

“Together with all the stakeholders, we have started detailed discussions today to complete our assessment of the rapid development of the worldwide health situation and its impact on the Olympic Games, including a scenario of postponement,” Bach wrote in the letter. “We are working very hard, and we are confident that we will have finalized these discussions within the next four weeks.”

Syria has confirmed its first coronavirus case in a person who had come from abroad.

The country, already shattered by nine years of war, has banned foreigners from many countries hit by the coronavirus.

Health Minister Nizar al-Yaziji told state media the “necessary measures” had been taken.

“We have vulnerable populations in camps, refugees, slum areas at the outskirts of large urban centers,” the World Health Organization’s Syria representative, Nima Saeed Abid, told Reuters.

“If we take the scenarios in China or even in Iran, we are expecting we may have large number of cases and we are preparing accordingly.”

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has denied the country’s healthcare system will collapse next month, contradicting his own health minister as the number of confirmed cases in the country rose above 1,000.

In an interview with CNN Brasil on Saturday night, Mr Bolsonaro also expressed his frustration with several states’ measures to essentially shut down commerce and restrict people’s movement, saying they have gone too far and are damaging the economy.

“I think Mandetta was exaggerating,” he told CNN Brasil, referring to health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who said on Thursday that Brazil’s fragile healthcare system will collapse under the weight of coronavirus by the end of April.

Bolsonaro said “collapse” was the wrong choice of words.

“What we’re doing is lengthening the infection curve. I don’t believe in a collapse,” he said.

The latest health ministry figures released late Saturday show that the death toll from coronavirus in Brazil has risen to at least 18, and the number of confirmed cases now stands at 1,128, up from 904 the day before.

– Reuters

Saudi Arabia has reported 119 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the kingdom’s total to 511.

The Health Ministry said 72 of the new cases were Turkish nationals under quarantine in Mecca after interacting with an infected compatriot.

Italy has announced 651 new deaths overnight, bringing the country’s coronavirus death toll to 5476.

It was an increase of 13.5 per cent on the day before, but down from Saturday’s peak when 793 people died.

Of those originally infected nationwide, 7,024 had fully recovered by Sunday compared to 6,072 the day prior. There were 3,009 people in intensive care against a previous 2,857.

Lombardy, the hardest-hit region in the north, remains in a critical situation, with 3456 deaths and 27,206 cases.

Germany has taken some of the world’s toughest measures yet to fight the coronavirus, banning meetings of more than two people outside the same household and mandating the closure of non-essential businesses.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said the new restrictions were not ideal but necessary. “None of us wished that we would ever have to face the people with such rules,” she said.

The new regulations will last at least two weeks, and mean restaurants, hairdressers, massage parlours and other nonessential stores should close.

She said these were “not regulations”, but “rules”, adding: “Spending time in public space is only permitted on your own, with another person who does not live in the household or with members of your own household.”

Ms Merkel also announced that she herself would go into self-quarantine after a doctor who gave her a vaccination tested positive for COVID-19.

It comes as healthcare systems in some of Europe’s wealthiest nations are on the brink of collapse as the number of coronavirus cases surges past 321,943 with more than 13,714 deaths globally.

There have been 24,714 cases in Germany with 92 deaths.