April 19 coronavirus news

When pressed by CNN’s Jeremy Diamond as to why he was taking time during the daily coronavirus task force briefing to discuss praise he has received while more than 22 million Americans are currently unemployed and more than 40,000 people have died from coronavirus, Trump said he was “standing up for the men and women who have done such an incredible job,” not for himself.

“I'm sticking up for those people," Trump said. "I am also sticking up for doctors and nurses and military doctors and nurses.”

When further pressed by Diamond, Trump said “those people have been excoriated by the fake news.”

“It's not about me. Nothing is about me," he said. "You are never going to treat me fairly, many of you, and I understand that.”

The clips Trump played at the briefing praised himself and not health care workers.

President Trump announced Sunday that he will compel a US company to make swabs under the Defense Production Act.

Two people familiar with the decision told CNN that company is Puritan Medical Products, which is based in Maine. It is known for making "flocked swabs," which it says are better at collecting specimens than other types.

Trump said the administration had experienced "difficulty" with the company, but did not elaborate further. Puritan did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment.

"We’ve had a little difficulty with one so we'll call in -- as we have in the past as you know -- we are calling in the Defense Production Act and we'll be getting swabs very easily,” Trump said.

Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that the White House task force overseeing the coronavirus pandemic believes several large metro areas continue to stabilize and see progress. He also said there are several cities the task force is watching.

“Areas that we continue to watch carefully on the task force include the Chicago metro area, Boston metro, and the Philadelphia metropolitan area,” Pence said.

As for the areas that have made progress he listed several:

The rates of California and Washington states remain “low and steady," Pence said

Chile has reported 10,088 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, Paula Daza, Chile’s public health undersecretary, said in a televised statement on Sunday. 

In the past 24 hours, 358 new cases and seven new deaths have been recorded, according to Daza.

As of Sunday, there have been 133 coronavirus deaths in Chile. 

President Donald Trump said Sunday the US still wants investigators to go to China to investigate the coronavirus outbreak.

The US has previously made requests, which have been rebuffed. The White House has continually accused China of withholding accurate information about the extent of the virus within the country.

About 14% of the New York Police Department were out sick on Sunday -- that’s down from a high of 19.8%, according to a daily NYPD report.

To date, 4,371 members of the NYPD have tested positive for Covid-19. Of those, 2,270 members have recovered and returned to work, and 2,073 are still out sick, the report said.

Those out sick include 1,706 uniformed members and 367 civilian members.

President Donald Trump said he is planning to use the Defense Production Act again, this time to help with the production of swabs needed to conduct coronavirus tests.

Trump said the administration is close to finalizing a deal with a company that will convert its plant to produce 10 million swabs per month, but that he would use the DPA to force another company to do the same.

Trump did not name either company.

Governors on both sides of the aisle have complained that one of the reasons states cannot conduct enough coronavirus tests is that they lack the materials needed to conduct such tests, including swabs.

Trump said last week 5 million swabs were going to be sent to the states but did not provide specifics.

President Donald Trump opened Sunday’s coronavirus task force briefing by saying negotiations over adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the Paycheck Protection Program are continuing to make progress, and that a deal could be announced Monday. Trump said he thinks the sides are getting close to a deal.

The President also said there will additional aid in the package. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNN’s “State of the Union” earlier Sunday that $75 billion will be included for hospitals.

“We are also looking at helping our hospitals and our rural hospitals who have been hurt very badly. The rural hospitals for a long time have not been treated properly. We are looking to help them and beyond. So we are looking at hospitals also as part of the package” Trump said.

Trump said he had just gotten off the phone with Mnuchin and concluded by saying, “I think you will have a nice answer tomorrow.”

About 12,000 coronavirus testing kits distributed by the Washington Department of Health have been recalled because of possible contamination, according to a news release from the health department.

Friday, University of Washington Medicine notified the state health department that there may have been a quality control issue after a small number of vials of viral transport media (VTM) fluid appeared to have an unusual color, according to the release.

The testing kits in question were sent to local health jurisdictions, tribal nations, and state agency partners across the state, the news release said.

Jurisdictions that received the kits are encouraged to contact the health department for a new shipment of swabs and VTM transport tubes, according to the release.

A large shipment of swabs and VTM from a different vendor are expected to arrive in the state this week, the release said.