March 20 coronavirus news

Deborah Birx, a physician and public health expert, spoke Friday about some of the "concerning" trends she is seeing across the globe during the coronavirus pandemic.

Birx specifically discussed Italy, where the number of deaths related to coronavirus has surpassed China.

More on Italy and China: The number of deaths in Italy reached 3,405 on Thursday, the Italian Civil Protection Agency said at a news conference — 156 more than China's toll, which, according to Johns Hopkins University, stands at 3,249.

The total number of cases in Italy rose to 41,035 with 5,322 new cases, officials added.

The grim figure comes hours after China marked a major milestone in the battle to limit the spread, reporting no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for the first time since the pandemic began.

President Trump said he kicked his usage of the Defense Production Act "into gear" on Thursday evening after saying he would only invoke the measure in a worst case scenario.

Trump told reporters he'd moved the National Response Coordination Center — an office within the Federal Emergency Management Agency — into the "highest level of activation."

"We are helping the states a lot," Trump said during the daily coronavirus briefing.

More on this: There remains some confusion around Trump's use of the Defense Production Act, which he signed on Wednesday but later said he wasn't yet invoking despite shortages of medical gear and equipment.

On Thursday, Trump said it was the responsibility of individual governors to ensure their states have sufficient levels of supplies.

The DPA allows the federal government to direct industries to produce necessary equipment, but it remains unclear whether Trump has provided that direction yet.

President Trump expressed support for measures taken by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo in California and New York, respectively, to address the coronavirus pandemic. 

Trump said he’s been watching what's happened in California, where Newsom issued a state-wide lock down.

On Friday, Cuomo announced that all workers in non-essential businesses across New York state are required to stay home in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed reports that the US has worked with Mexico to "restrict non-essential travels across our shared border," he said today during the Coronavirus Task Force White House briefing.

Pompeo discussed the restriction of travel to Canada as well.

Following Pence's remarks, Chad Wolf, acting Homeland Security secretary, said neither agreement with Canada or Mexico applies to lawful trade or commerce.

"We'll continue to maintain a strong supply chain across our border," Wolf said.

The agreement between Mexico and Canada will go affect March 21.

President Trump confirmed he spoke with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Friday. Trump had an “extremely good” call with Schumer “a little while ago,” he said at the Coronavirus Task Force White House briefing. 

A Schumer spokesperson passed along a readout of the call earlier today, saying that Schumer urged Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act. 

Trump did not confirm the Schumer readout of the call, which said he agreed to immediately invoke the Act.

Trump said he also spoke “at length” with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and there is a “tremendous spirit to get something done.”

President Trump said at press conference today that the federal government has "temporarily waived all interest on federally held student loans" for 60 days due to the coronavirus outbreak.

He added: "If we need more, we'll extend that period of time."

Watch:

According to CNN Health’s tally of US cases that are detected and tested in the United States through public health systems, there are 15,599 cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States. 

As of Friday morning, 197 people have died.

The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his order for all non-essential workers to stay home is "not a shelter in place order."

Cuomo said "words matter" and pushed back on the suggestion that the new mandate is a shelter-in-place order.

He said he's increasing the mandates "because the numbers are increasing" of positive cases.

On the question of who counts as an essential worker, he noted that mass transit workers and restaurant staff doing delivery and take-out service can still go to work.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for a moratorium on evictions for 90 days because "I want to protect the people of the state of New York," he said Friday during a press conference.

This order applies to both residential and commercial properties, Cuomo added.