By DAVID RISING, MATT SEDENSKY and JILL LAWLESS | March 27, 2020 at 2:24 AM EDT – Updated March 28 at 12:44 AM
(AP) — President Donald Trump issued an order Friday that seeks to force General Motors to produce ventilators for coronavirus patients under the Defense Production Act.
Trump said negotiations with General Motors had been productive, “but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course.”
Trump said “GM was wasting time” and that his actions will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives.
Previously Trump has been reluctant to use the act to force businesses to contribute to the coronavirus fight, and wasn’t clear what triggered his order against GM.
The Detroit automaker is among the farthest along among U.S. companies trying to repurpose factories to build ventilators. It’s working with Ventec Life Systems, a small Seattle-area ventilator maker to increase the company’s production and will use a GM auto electronics plant in Kokomo, Indiana, to make the machines. The company said Friday it could build 10,000 ventilators per month starting in April with potential to make even more.
After Trump invoked the act, GM said in a statement that it has been working around the clock for more than a week with Ventec and parts suppliers to build more ventilators. The company said its commitment to build Ventec’s ventilators “has never wavered.”
At a briefing of his coronavirus task force Friday evening, Trump said he will press U.S. manufacturers to build 100,000 ventilators “pretty quickly” to meet the needs of American hospitals and medical providers around the world.
Trump’s call for the building of more ventilators comes one day after he pushed back on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who cited medical experts’ prediction that his state will need 30,000 to 40,000 ventilators when the coronavirus outbreak peaks there.
Trump said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday stressed the need for more ventilators in his country. He added Italy, Germany and Spain are also in need of more ventilators.
Trump said he believes U.S. manufacturers are able to take care of American needs while also helping other countries.
New Orleans rushed to build a makeshift hospital in its convention center Friday as troubling new outbreaks bubbled in the United States, deaths surged in Italy and Spain and the world warily trudged through the pandemic that has sickened more than a half-million people.
In a reminder no one is immune to the new coronavirus, it pierced even the highest echelons of global power as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first leader of a major country to test positive.
As the death toll continued to climb in France, health workers there received a huge show of gratitude — from the Eiffel Tower. “Merci,” French for ‘Thank you,” and “Stay at home” in English were emblazoned in lights at night on Paris’ world-famous landmark.
The escalation of cases worldwide came as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared a new rapid test from Abbott Laboratories, which the company says can detect the coronavirus in about 5 minutes. Medical device maker Abbott announced the emergency clearance of its cartridge-based test Friday night, saying the test delivers a negative result in 13 minutes when the virus is not detected.
While New York remained the worst hit city in the U.S., Americans braced for worsening conditions elsewhere, with worrisome infection numbers being reported in New Orleans, Chicago and Detroit.
“We are not through this. We’re not even halfway through this,” said Joseph Kanter of the Louisiana Department of Health, which has recorded more than 2,700 cases, more than five times what it had a week ago. The United States became the first country to surpass 100,000 infections on Friday, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
New Orleans’ sprawling Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, along the Mississippi River, was being converted into a massive hospital as officials prepared for thousands more patients than they could accommodate. The preparations immediately conjured images of another disaster, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when the convention center became a squalid shelter of last resort in a city that has braved a string of storm hits, not to mention great fires and a yellow fever epidemic in centuries past.
As the new health crisis loomed, economic catastrophe had already arrived in the city, where many already live in poverty and the tourism industry has screeched to a halt.
“I’ve never been unemployed. But now, all of a sudden: Wop!” said John Moore, the musician best known as Deacon John, who has no gigs to perform with much of the city shut down. “It ain’t just me. It’s everybody.”
Trump sends governors letter on social distancing
In New York, where there are more than 44,000 cases statewide, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 passed 6,000 on Friday, double what it had been three days earlier.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for 4,000 more temporary beds across New York City, where the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center has already been converted into a hospital.
“This is going to be weeks and weeks and weeks,” Cuomo told members of the National Guard working at the Javits Center. “This is going to be a long day, and it’s going to be a hard day, and it’s going to be an ugly day, and it’s going to be a sad day.”
President Donald Trump, after earlier rejecting Cuomo’s pleas for tens of thousands more ventilators, and the governor’s calls to use the Korean War-era Defense Production Act, invoked the law Friday, ordering General Motors to begin manufacturing the breathing machines.
Trump signed a $2.2 trillion stimulus package, after the House approved the sweeping measure by voice vote. Lawmakers in both parties lined up behind the law to send checks to millions of Americans, boost unemployment benefits, help businesses and toss a life preserver to an overwhelmed health care system.
More than 595,000 people have contracted the virus around the world and about 27,000 have died. While the U.S. now leads the world in reported infections, five countries exceed its roughly 1,700 deaths: Italy, Spain, China, Iran and France.
Dr. John Brooks of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans remained “in the acceleration phase” of the pandemic and that all corners of the country were at risk.
“There is no geographic part of the United States that is spared from this,” he said.
In a phone call Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Trump that China “stands ready to provide support within its capacity,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Trump, who has repeatedly referred to the outbreak as a “Chinese virus,” struck a different tone Friday, tweeting after the call that “China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!”
In Europe, Italy recorded its single biggest 24-hour rise in deaths, with 969 more victims, to bring its total number of fatalities to 9,134. The country now has more than 86,000 cases, surpassing China to record the grim distinction of the second-most infections in the world, behind the U.S.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella called it “a sad page in our history.”
Italian epidemiologists warn that the country’s number of cases is likely much higher than reported — perhaps by five times — although two weeks into a nationwide lockdown the daily increase seems to be slowing, at least in northern Italy.
‘’It is something devastating,’’ said the Rev. Mario Carminati, whose church in the tiny Lombardy town of Seriate has been used to hold coffins of the dead before they are taken by military convoy for cremation.
Spain, with the world’s fourth-biggest number of cases, reported another 7,800 infections for a total of more than 64,000. The country said health workers accounted for about 15 percent of its cases.
Deaths in Spain climbed past 4,900 — the world’s second-highest total after Italy.
US tops cases, UK PM tests positive
In Britain, Johnson’s office said the prime minister was tested after showing mild symptoms for the coronavirus. He was self-isolating and continuing to lead Britain’s response to the pandemic.
“Be in no doubt that I can continue, thanks to the wizardry of modern technology, to communicate with all my top team, to lead the national fightback against coronavirus,” Johnson said in a video message, adding that he had a temperature and persistent cough.
Several weeks ago, Johnson had pledged he would “go on shaking hands with everybody.”
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has been at the forefront of the nation’s virus response, also was confirmed to be infected. Prince Charles previously said he tested positive.
Around the world, the pandemic threatened people living in places with little means to respond.
India launched a massive program to feed hungry day laborers after a lockdown of the country’s 1.3 billion people put them out of work. Iran’s military hurriedly finished a 2,000-bed field hospital to accommodate the worst outbreak in the Mideast. In Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, South Africa and elsewhere, the count of the infected passed 1,000 people and worries persisted that it would only get worse.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
Johns Hopkins reported more than 130,000 people have recovered, about half in China.
Stocks skidded in Europe and on Wall Street, where major indexes closed down about 3%, giving up some of the gains the market had piled up over the previous three days.
The head of the International Monetary Fund said it was clear that the global economy has now entered a recession that could be as bad or worse than the 2009 downturn.
The U.S. now tops the list for having the most confirmed cases of Covid-19
In Washington, the House rushed a $2.2 trillion recovery package to President Donald Trump, approving the sweeping measure by voice vote. Lawmakers in both parties lined up behind the measure to send checks to millions of Americans, boost unemployment benefits, help businesses and toss a life preserver to an overwhelmed health care system.
The U.S. now has 85,996 confirmed cases, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Italy, the U.S.. and China account for nearly half the world’s more than 575,000 infections and more than half of the roughly 26,000 reported virus deaths.
Analysts warned that all those infection figures could be low for reasons that varied in each nation.
“China numbers can’t be trusted because the government lies,” American political scientist Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group think-tank, said in a tweet. “U.S. numbers can’t be trusted because the government can’t produce enough tests.”
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
Johns Hopkins reported more than 128,000 people have recovered, about half in China.
Cuomo: Trump uninformed on ventilators
New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, reported 100 more deaths in one day, accounting for almost 30% of the 1,300 fatalities nationwide. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the number of deaths will increase soon as critically ill patients who have been on ventilators for days succumb.
“That is a situation where people just deteriorate over time,” Cuomo said.
Around the world, the pandemic threatened people living in places with little means to respond.
India launched a massive program to feed hungry day laborers after a lockdown of the country’s 1.3 billion people put them out of work. Iran’s military hurriedly finished a 2,000-bed field hospital to accommodate the worst outbreak in the Mideast. In Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, South Africa and elsewhere, the count of the infected passed 1,000 people and worries persisted that it would only get worse.
In China, where the virus was first believed to have started, the National Health Commission on Friday reported 55 new cases, 54 of them imported infections. Once again, there were no new cases reported in Wuhan, the provincial capital where the coronavirus first emerged in December. China is barring most foreigners from entering.
In a phone call Friday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Trump that China “understands the United States’ current predicament over the COVID-19 outbreak and stands ready to provide support within its capacity,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Trump, who has repeatedly referred to the outbreak as a “Chinese virus,” struck a different tone Friday, tweeting after the call that “China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!”
Beijing has strongly protested U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s repeated references to the outbreak as the “Wuhan Flu,” saying that promotes bias against China and Chinese Americans.
Shares skidded early Friday in Europe after a mixed day in Asia, where Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped while Australia’s benchmark sank 5%. On Wall Street, major indexes were down about 3%, giving up some of the gains the market had piled up over the previous three days.
Sedensky reported from Philadelphia and Rising reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.
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