Trump itching to reopen economy as advisors warn of 'Pearl Harbor moment'

The head of the public USA health system, Jerome Adams has warned that most Americans are facing "the hardest and the saddest week" .

There are more than 312,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and more than 8500 have died from the disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

President Donald Trump, who multiple times this year compared the virus to the flu, said the disease was "totally under control" in January.

However, Andrew Cuomo, the state's governor, was cautious not to draw any conclusions although the figures provided a glimmer of hope.

Americans should get ready for a 9/11 and Pearl Harbor-type death toll in the coming week as coronavirus kills a "shocking" number of people, United States officials have warned.

At this point, most USA governors have issued stay-at-home orders.

Adams said that for those in the nine states without orders, for people who cannot stay home for the entire month, they should "give us what you can so we can get this peak and start to come down on the other side".

NY experienced 36 fewer deaths in the past 24 hours than in the 24-hour period before.

Almost half of those fatalities were in New York City, where the death toll reached 2,624 and hospital corridors were littered with body bags containing the latest victims. "Fifty states and territories have now been approved for major disaster declarations, which is very unusual", Trump said.

"We've seen that in Italy", Fauci said.

Like the surgeon general, Dr. "We really, really need everyone to stay at home".

"They are coming from all over the planet including from within the United States, where the equipment isn't as necessary".

Local elected officials, community leaders and public health experts have pushed Stitt to implement a shelter-in-place order, saying the virus has likely already spread throughout the state, even into counties without confirmed cases.

In a related development, Governor Jay Inslee announced on Sunday that Washington will be returning more than 400 ventilators from the federal government to help NY.

The governor said rapid testing, still out-of-reach, was key to a "return to normalcy", while reiterating appeals for equipment including ventilators from other states as well as from the federal stockpile.

"We're looking at this seriously now, because by the data we could be either very near the apex, or the apex could be a plateau and we could be on that plateau right now", he said.

"I can't lock the state down... people also have to be responsible for themselves", she said. Adams was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if they should join the rest of the country.

"But that's what is going to happen before it turns around, so just buckle down", Fauci said on CBS's "Face the Nation".

Projecting the course of the outbreak is hard to do, experts said, because much depends on the measures being taken now and in days and weeks ahead.

"We are struggling to get it under control, and that's the issue that's at hand right now", he said.

Reiterating his push for using Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug in the fight against coronavirus, Trump said the USA has procured some 29 million doses of Hydroxychloroquine tablets to be distributed across the country.