Tag Archives: Pandemic

Pentagon leaders suggest coronavirus outbreak could continue for months

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senior Pentagon leaders said on Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic which has hit the United States could continue for months.

“I think we need to plan for this to be a few months long at least and we’re taking all precautionary measures to do that,” U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said when asked how long the outbreak may last and how long the military would continue the support efforts to counter it.

“I am fully confident that at the end of the day, in a period of months, we will get through this,” Esper said during a virtual town hall.

At the same event, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said that while it was unclear how long the outbreak would last, taking models from the experience of other countries, which may or may not apply to the United States, the outbreak could last into July.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Exclusive: Elite hackers target WHO as coronavirus cyberattacks spike

By Raphael Satter, Jack Stubbs and Christopher Bing

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) – Elite hackers tried to break into the World Health Organization earlier this month, sources told Reuters, part of what a senior agency official said was a more than two-fold increase in cyberattacks.

WHO Chief Information Security Officer Flavio Aggio said the identity of the hackers was unclear, but the effort was unsuccessful. He warned that hacking attempts against the agency and its partners have soared as they battle to contain the coronavirus, which has killed more than 15,000 worldwide.

The attempted break-in at the WHO was first flagged to Reuters by Alexander Urbelis, a cybersecurity expert and attorney with the New York-based Blackstone Law Group, which tracks suspicious internet domain registration activity.

Urbelis said he picked up on the activity around March 13, when a group of hackers he’d been following activated a malicious site mimicking the WHO’s internal email system.

“I realized quite quickly that this was a live attack on the World Health Organization in the midst of a pandemic,” he said.

Urbelis said he didn’t know who was responsible, but two other sources briefed on the matter said they suspected an advanced group of hackers known as DarkHotel, which has been conducting cyber-espionage operations since at least 2007.

Messages sent to email addresses maintained by the hackers went unreturned.

When asked by Reuters about the incident, the WHO’s Aggio confirmed that the site spotted by Urbelis had been used in an attempt to steal passwords from multiple agency staffers.

“There has been a big increase in targeting of the WHO and other cybersecurity incidents,” Aggio said in a telephone interview. “There are no hard numbers, but such compromise attempts against us and the use of (WHO) impersonations to target others have more than doubled.”

The WHO published an alert last month – available here warning that hackers are posing as the agency to steal money and sensitive information from the public.

The motives in the case identified by Reuters aren’t clear. United Nations agencies, the WHO among them, are regularly targeted by digital espionage campaigns and Aggio declined to say who precisely at the organization the hackers had in their sights.

Cybersecurity firms including Romania’s Bitdefender and Moscow-based Kaspersky said they have traced many of DarkHotel’s operations to East Asia – an area that has been particularly affected by the coronavirus. Specific targets have included government employees and business executives in places such as China, North Korea, Japan, and the United States.

Costin Raiu, head of global research and analysis at Kaspersky, could not confirm that DarkHotel was responsible for the WHO attack but said the same malicious web infrastructure had also been used to target other healthcare and humanitarian organizations in recent weeks.

“At times like this, any information about cures or tests or vaccines relating to coronavirus would be priceless and the priority of any intelligence organization of an affected country,” he said.

Officials and cybersecurity experts have warned that hackers of all stripes are seeking to capitalize on international concern over the spread of the coronavirus.

Urbelis said he has tracked thousands of coronavirus-themed web sites being set up daily, many of them obviously malicious.

“It’s still around 2,000 a day,” he said. “I have never seen anything like this.”

(Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Editing by Chris Sanders and Edward Tobin)

Russia to use mobile phones to track people at risk of coronavirus

By Gleb Stolyarov, Polina Nikolskaya and Olesya Astakhova

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Monday gave the authorities five days to develop a system to track people who have come into contact with anyone with coronavirus by using mobile phone geolocation data.

Under the new system, people would be sent information if they came into contact with someone who was infected and the same information would be passed on to special regional headquarters set up to fight the pandemic.

The Kremlin said the measure was legal and part of measures Russia is taking to try to halt spread of the virus.

The measure will trace “citizens who are in contact with patients with new coronavirus infection on the basis of information from cellular operators about the geolocation of a cell phone of a particular person”.

This “would allow citizens to be notified (over the phone) if they have been in contact with a person suffering from the new coronavirus, sending relevant messages to inform them of the need for self-isolation…” the communications ministry said in a statement.

Russia, which has temporarily banned the entry of foreigners to limit the spread of coronavirus, has 438 confirmed infections and one virus-related death – less than many European countries.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told residents of the capital over 65 and those with chronic illnesses to remain at home.

Russia is gradually tightening quarantine rules and readying its healthcare system for more cases. Sobyanin told the elderly and other vulnerable residents to only visit pharmacies and food shops if absolutely necessary from Thursday until April 14.

STAY AT HOME OR DACHAS

Where possible, he also advised the elderly to leave the city and stay at their dachas – out-of-town cottages on private plots of land which many Russian families traditionally own.

The city, which has 262 confirmed infections, will give 4,000 rubles ($49) to all over 65s and people with chronic illnesses.

City hall has required mobile phone operators not to switch off phone and internet access for the elderly if their balance hits zero, and temporarily canceled fines for late payment of utility bills.

Moscow has also changed its coronavirus testing system. Samples will no longer be sent to a lab in Siberia for a second round of testing to confirm a positive result received during tests conducted in labs in the capital, the city’s coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement.

Russia is also taking steps to prepare its food supply and medical system for a potential upsurge in infections.

The government said it had asked the agriculture ministry and other officials to prepare proposals on whether exports of any food, essential products or medicine should be limited.

It also ordered the labor and justice ministries to devise plans to prevent workers from being fired for coronavirus-related reasons, such as self-isolation.

“I believe that overall, we have the situation with coronavirus under control,” Mishustin said. “But preparation for more serious challenges is necessary.”

Russia’s emergency ministry said in a statement to Reuters that it had suspended non-essential foreign business trips and advised its employees to avoid leaving the country.

The interior ministry, which operates Russia’s police force, among other law enforcement agencies, issued a similar order, a document seen by Reuters showed.

Some Russians have also called on members of the country’s wealthy elite to step in and contribute. Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin, co-owner of mining giant Norilsk Nickel <GMKN.MM>, said on Monday his charitable fund would provide 1 billion rubles to support nonprofit and cultural organizations affected by the coronavirus.

(Additional reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Maria Tsvetkova; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mark Heinrich)

Coronavirus stay-at-home directives multiply in major U.S. states

By Steve Gorman and Gabriella Borter

(Reuters) – New Jersey’s governor was expected on Saturday to follow four other states – California, New York, Illinois and Connecticut – demanding that millions of Americans close up shop and stay home to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.

The sweeping state-by-state public health restrictions, unprecedented in breadth and scope, added to the distance being experienced among ordinary Americans.

“I know people want to hear it’s only going to be a matter of weeks and then everything’s going to be fine,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference on Saturday. “I don’t believe it’s going to be a matter of weeks. I believe it is going to be a matter of months.”

Meanwhile, the global pandemic seemed to close in on the highest levels of power in the nation’s capital.

An aide to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, leading the White House task force formed to combat the outbreak, tested positive for the virus, but neither President Donald Trump nor Pence have had close contact with the individual, Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, said in a statement late on Friday.

Pence’s office was notified of the positive test on Friday evening, and officials were seeking to determine who the staffer might have exposed, Miller said.

The aide was not publicly identified, and the vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for further details of the diagnosis or whether Pence would be tested.

“He’s recovering and has very, very mild symptoms,” Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short told CNN on Saturday.

The White House said last week that Pence did not require testing after dining with a Brazilian delegation, at least one member of which later tested positive for the respiratory illness. Trump has tested negative for the virus, his doctor said last week.

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives tested positive on Wednesday, becoming the first members of Congress known to have contracted the disease, which has killed 266 people in the United States.

The total number of known U.S. coronavirus cases has risen exponentially in recent days, climbing past 19,000 in a surge that health officials attributed in large part to an increase in diagnostic testing. More than 270 Americans have died.

Click  for a GRAPHIC on U.S. cases.

Cuomo said New York state was sending 1 million N95 respirator masks to New York City on Saturday. He said the state has identified 6,000 ventilators for purchase, which he described as a major step, but added that it needs 30,000.

“We are literally scouring the globe for medical supplies,” the governor said. New York state has recorded 10,356 cases, he said, 6,211 of them in New York City.

SOCIAL-DISTANCING GOES STATEWIDE

Expanding on social-distancing measures increasingly adopted at the local level, California Governor Gavin Newsom instituted the first statewide directive requiring residents to remain indoors except for trips to grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and other “essential businesses.”

Newsom’s order, announced late on Thursday, made allowances for the state’s 40 million people to venture outside for exercise so long as they kept their distance from others.

On Friday, his counterparts in New York state, Illinois and Connecticut followed suit, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he planned to issue similar directives on Saturday.

The five states where governors have banned or will soon ban non-essential businesses and press residents to stay inside are home to 84 million people combined, about a quarter of the entire U.S. population and account for nearly a third of the nation’s economy.

The state directives were for the most part issued without strict enforcement mechanisms to back them up.

“What we want is for people to be in compliance and we’re going to do everything that we can to educate them,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a briefing on Saturday. Police officers would “admonish” those found to be on non-essential outings to go home, she said.

“That’s what we hope is the end of any kind of contact that anyone might have with the police department,” Lightfoot said.

Cuomo said there will be a civil fine and mandatory closure for any business that is not in compliance.

Even before the flurry of statewide stay-at-home orders, the pandemic had virtually paralyzed parts of the U.S. economy and upended lifestyles over the past week, as school districts and colleges canceled classes and many companies were shuttered, either voluntarily or by local government mandates.

Washington state, which documented the first known U.S. coronavirus case in January and now accounts for the greatest number of deaths – 83 as of Friday – has since March 16 closed bars, restaurants, recreation venues and entertainment facilities, while banning all gatherings of more than 50 people.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Gabriella Borter in New York; Additional reporting by Caroline Spezio in New York; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Daniel Wallis)

As U.S. workers file for unemployment, some states are less prepared

By Jonnelle Marte

(Reuters) – The U.S. unemployment benefits program, a key part of the safety net for the labor market, is about to face its biggest test in more than a decade.

More than 1.5 million applications could be filed this week, economists said, as people who work for restaurants, bars, hotels and other businesses suddenly find themselves out of work because of the coronavirus.

States that cut unemployment staff and benefits during better economic times may be unprepared for the deluge in applications, analysts say.

“States are just not in a position to respond to this,” said Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project in Washington, D.C. “They’re at historically low levels of funding and they’re moving into a state where there may be historically high levels of claims within a couple of weeks.”

The pandemic is dealing a blow to states already facing budget shortfalls. Twenty-three states were short on unemployment insurance trust funds as of last year, before the coronavirus shock, a Department of Labor calculation shows .

Some workers who applied for the program this week were met with downed websites, long waits on phone lines and other delays.

After being laid off from her job as a bar tender in New York City, Caitlin Ma, 29, went online to apply for unemployment and food stamps on Thursday. “But the systems are so bogged down,” she said. To expedite her food stamp application, Ma will have to go physically to the offices, despite health officials’ recommendations.

Making things worse, qualifications and benefits available may also vary based on where workers live.

The U.S. Department of Labor, which sets federal guidelines for the program, recently gave states the flexibility to provide benefits to people temporarily out of work. But states administer the benefits, and not all have made the change.

California made unemployment benefits available to people who had their hours cut because of the virus. New York waived the one-week waiting period for people who are out of work because of closures or quarantines related to the coronavirus. And Massachusetts is providing more leeway for people who are currently receiving benefits but miss a deadline because of the virus, along with other changes.

North Carolina, where filings have already jumped, this week said that anyone “separated from employment” by the virus, including having their hours reduced though still retaining a job, is entitled to unemployment insurance “to the maximum extent” permitted under federal law.

But lawmakers in Mississippi did not agree on a bill to extend access to jobless benefits, and are now on recess until April 1, according to a report in Mississippi Today.

Ten states, including Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia, have cut their maximum length of benefits over the last several years to be less than 26 weeks, which is the standard for most states.

A bill passed by the Senate this week could increase funding for state labor departments and would make extended benefits available in the states where the unemployment rate rises by at least 10%. That funding could provide needed support to states that are now hiring rapidly to rebuild their staffs, Evermore said.

Broader access to unemployment benefits can help stabilize the economy after a downturn – and speed up the recovery – by providing people who lose their jobs with cash they can use to buy groceries, gas and other necessities. The changes some states are making may help lessen the blow to their local economies.

“It’s unfortunate that it takes a crisis for us to realize how important it is for people to have good unemployment insurance programs,” said Dave Cooper, a senior economic analyst for the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C.

Still, the recent adjustments may not fully close the gaps in the system. Self-employed people and contract workers who experience a drop off in business because of the virus may not be able to qualify for help, said Stephen Wandner, a research fellow at the W.E. Upjohn Institute.

“There are all of these other people who are losing their jobs who are not covered by unemployment insurance in the first place,” said Wandner.

(Reporting by Jonnelle Marte. Additional reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault. Editing by Heather Timmons and Chizu Nomiyama)

Cheap and creative ideas to protect world’s most vulnerable from coronavirus

By Sonia Elks

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – From handwashing stations to digital advice hubs, initiatives are underway to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from the global coronavirus epidemic.

While richer nations rush to bolster their health systems to cope, poorer nations with fewer resources are likely to struggle and suffer worse impacts, said humanitarian organisations, with refugee camps and war zones facing some of the worst risks.

“Refugees, families displaced from their homes, and those living in crisis will be hit the hardest by this outbreak,” David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a charity working in more than 40 countries.

“As the world struggles to deal with the fallout of COVID-19 across its richest nations, the needs of the most vulnerable must not be neglected or forgotten,” he said in a statement.

COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, emerged in China late last year and has infected more than 200,000 people and killed 9,000, according to a global tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Aid groups have warned of potentially devastating effects if the virus takes hold in refugee camps which often house huge numbers of people in cramped temporary shelters, or in countries in conflict like Yemen where health systems have collapsed.

URGENT ACTION

A range of projects are being launched to provide lifesaving facilities and information, as lockdowns and border closures pinch key supply chains and create new barriers to reaching those at risk.

A multi-million dollar fund has been set up to help the World Health Organization respond to coronavirus, with priority given to more vulnerable countries with weaker health systems.

With hygiene seen as a key first line of defence, health authorities and aid groups such as Oxfam are delivering extra soap, handwashing stations and other sanitation facilities to high-risk areas including refugee camps.

In Bangladesh, which recorded its first coronavirus death on Wednesday, women volunteers are educating people living in the world’s largest refugee camp about hygiene. There have been no cases in the camp so far.

Aid groups are also turning to digital channels to share key health messages and support in global coronavirus hotspots.

And after lockdowns disrupted in-person support groups in China, the charity World Vision turned to social platforms including Weibo and WhatsApp to stay in touch with families with child-friendly health messages and advice.

“We need to be thinking creatively and using these low-cost digital messages,” Erica Van Deren, senior program manager at World Vision, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“As people are doing social distancing and staying at home, as governments are putting restrictions up around gathering, people are turning to social media and to their phones for information.”

Social enterprises and community groups have also helped to tackle shortages, from supplying face masks and soap to picking up shopping for elderly neighbours self-isolating at home.

As coronavirus hits economies, the poorest are likely to feel the longer-lasting effects, said Juliet Parker, director of operations at Action Against Hunger UK.

“Aside from the immediate impact on health facilities, which could be overwhelming, there is the longer-term impact this could have on poverty levels,” she said, citing the possible impact on Africa, the world’s poorest continent.

“It’s too early to say what the scale of this might be, but it is conceivable that the humanitarian needs in some countries could increase if the price or demand for African exports is affected.”

(Reporting by Sonia Elks @soniaelks; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Trump says he will invoke wartime act to fight ‘enemy’ coronavirus

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump moved on Wednesday to accelerate production of desperately needed medical equipment to battle the coronavirus pandemic and said an estimate that U.S. unemployment could conceivably reach 20 percent was a worst case scenario.

Scrambling to address the virus after initially playing it down, Trump said he is invoking the Defense Production Act, putting in place a law that will allow the U.S. government to speed production of masks, respirators, ventilators and other needed equipment.

“We’re going to defeat the invisible enemy,” said Trump, who said the unfolding crisis had basically made him a “war-time president.”

Trump said he would invoke another law that would allow U.S. authorities to turn back migrants seeking to cross the southern border of the United States illegally. The border will not be closed, he said.

“No, we’re not going to close it, but we are invoking a certain provision that will allow us great latitude as to what we do,” he said.

Trump has made staunching the flow of migrants across the border with Mexico a central pillar of his presidency and has poured billions of dollars into building a border wall that is far from completed.

Immigrant rights groups have slammed the idea of mass returns of foreign nationals to Mexico.

Trump said a hospital ship will be sent to hard-hit New York to help people affected by the contagion, and that a second hospital ship will be deployed on the West Coast.

He defended his description of the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus” despite concerns among some Americans that he was making an ethnic slur.

“It’s not racist, not at all. It comes from China,” he said of the illness, whose origin has been traced back to Wuhan, China.

Trump, appearing in the White House briefing room for what has now become a daily news conference with his coronavirus task force, said he would sign the Defense Production Act later on Wednesday.

The law, which dates back to the Korean War of the 1950s, grants the president broad authority to “expedite and expand the supply of resources from the U.S. industrial base to support military, energy, space, and homeland security programs,” according to a summary on the Federal Emergency Management Agency website.

Reuters was first to report last month that Trump’s action was being considered. (https://reut.rs/2U0TVqk)

“We will be invoking the Defense Production Act just in case we need it,” said Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin fanned fears of economic collapse on Wednesday by telling lawmakers on Capitol Hill that 20 percent unemployment was an extreme possibility should the virus have devastating effects on American businesses, many of which are already under duress.

“That’s an absolute total worst case scenario,” said Trump. “We’re nowhere near it.”

Vice President Mike Pence, head of the coronavirus task force, urged all Americans to put off elective surgery to allow hospitals to concentrate on the rising influx of patients with the COVID-19 respiratory illness caused by the new virus.

Deborah Birx, a member of the task force, urged young people to adhere to government guidelines, calling for a 15-day effort to slow the spread of the virus. Young people are considered key transmitters of the virus, which can be passed along even with mild or no symptoms.

There are now more than 7,300 U.S. cases of the illness and at least 118 deaths.

(Reporting By Jeff Masonm, Steve Holland, Alexandra Alper, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Lisa Lambert; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Alistair Bell and Steve Orlofsky)

Senate weighs emergency coronavirus pandemic funds; Trump seeks $850 billion more

By David Shepardson and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday prepared to weigh a multibillion-dollar emergency spending bill passed by the House of Representatives offering economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic as the Trump administration pressed for $850 billion more.

The House of Representatives over the weekend passed a measure that would require sick leave for some workers and expand unemployment compensation among other steps, including nearly $1 billion in additional money to help feed children, homebound senior citizens and others.

Even before Congress passed its second measure in days, President Donald Trump’s administration wants massive additional spending to help blunt the impact of the fast-spreading disease, which has sunk global financial markets and caused sweeping disruptions to the U.S. economy.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin planned to discuss the $850 billion stimulus package the administration wants when meeting on Tuesday with Senate Republicans at the Capitol, said a U.S. government official said who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations.

The funding would include some aid for airlines along with a payroll tax cut among other provisions. U.S. airlines have sought at least $50 billion in grants and loans.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton, in a syndicated radio interview, said lawmakers could pass the House measure as-is and then take on another bill to include more economic stimulus actions desired by the administration.

The pandemic has already killed at least 83 people in the United States and prompted widespread closings of schools, restaurants and social gatherings of all kinds.

Early Saturday, Congress passed and Trump signed an $8.3 billion package to battle the coronavirus.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate is “anxious” to pass the latest House-passed bill, an action that could happen later on Tuesday.

Republicans said the Senate would work to pass the third measure this week containing the much-larger stimulus because of uncertainty about the Senate schedule caused by the coronavirus outbreak. That would require the House to take up the legislation when it returns from recess next week.

But neither administration officials nor Senate leaders are sure that such a large bill could move that quickly through the Senate.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Susan Heavey, additional reporting by David Morgan and Jeff Mason; editing by Scott Malone, Bernadette Baum and David Gregorio)

Exclusive: Amazon stops receiving non-essential products from sellers amid coronavirus outbreak

By Krystal Hu

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc  is suspending sellers from sending non-essential products to its U.S. and U.K. warehouses until April 5 in the latest move to free up inventory space for much-needed supplies that are in shortage as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

In a note sent to sellers on Tuesday, Amazon said it is seeing increasing online shopping demand from consumers. As its household staples and medical supplies are running out of stock, it will prioritize certain categories in order to “quickly receive, restock, and ship these products to customers.”

Amazon defined five categories as essential products that can continue shipping, including Baby Product, Health & Household, Beauty & Personal Care, Grocery, Industrial & Scientific, Pet Supplies.

The move follows Amazon’s announcement it will hire 100,000 workers for its warehouses on Monday, as the Seattle-based giant is trying to meet growing online shopping need from people who stay home amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Third-party sellers account for over half of the sales on Amazon. Amazon has been courting sellers to use its own fulfillment system, enabling many of them with faster delivery without the risks of sitting on inventories.

It is especially popular for sellers who use a dropping shipping method, meaning sellers import products from manufacturers in countries including China and directly send them to an Amazon warehouse. Amazon earns fees from managing the storage and delivery process.

Sellers supplying products that are deemed non-essential could see their products run out of stock and they will be unable to restock as a result of the measure. Still, they can use other fulfillment methods to directly mail products to customers.

Amazon did not immediately replied to request for comment.

(Reporting by Krystal Hu; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

U.S. cities go quiet as officials step up coronavirus warnings

By Doina Chiacu and Maria Caspani

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The streets of major U.S. cities were eerily empty on Tuesday morning after officials from President Donald Trump on down stepped up warnings about the coronavirus pandemic, while the number of cases mushroomed and deaths topped 80.

Millions of Americans hunkered down in their homes instead of commuting to work or school. New York and other major cities escalated “social distancing” policies by closing schools, bars, restaurants and theaters.

Officials in six San Francisco Bay Area counties on Monday ordered residents to stay at home for all but the most crucial outings until April 7. That directive came a day after California Governor Gavin Newsom urged adults older than 65, and their caretakers, to remain indoors whether or not they have underlying health conditions.

It was St. Patrick’s Day but the mood was sober, not joyous, after traditional parades and parties celebrating the Irish heritage of many Americans were cancelled across the country.

Financial markets will look to stabilize after the stock market suffered a historic loss on Monday. The S&P 500 tumbled 12 percent, its worst single-day loss since the stock market crash of 1987.

But politics will proceed mostly as scheduled in three of four states that have primary elections on Tuesday to select a Democratic presidential candidate to challenge Trump in the November general elections.

Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders square off in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, but Ohio officials canceled their primary due to coronavirus fears hours before the vote was to begin.

The tally of confirmed U.S. cases has multiplied quickly over the past few weeks, surpassing 4,600 and prompting fears American hospitals might soon be overwhelmed, as Italian medical centers have been strained to the breaking point.

At least 83 people in the United States had died of the virus, as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University and various state and local public health agencies, with the hardest-hit state, Washington, accounting for the bulk of the fatalities, including six more announced on Monday.

The United States has lagged behind other industrializednations in its ability to test for the novel coronavirus. Inearly March, the Trump administration said close to one milliontests would soon be available and anyone who needed a test wouldget one, a promise it failed to keep.

After previously downplaying the danger and declaring the situation under control, the White House urged Americans on Monday to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people and called for closing bars, restaurants and other venues in states where local virus transmission exists.

The president’s change in tone followed newly urgent messaging from governors and mayors across the country who have taking their own drastic measures.

The states of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut struck a regional agreement to close all movie theaters, casinos and gyms as of 8 p.m. Monday (0000 GMT). Restaurants and bars in the three states – where more than 22 million people live – will serve takeout and delivery only.

Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, would not say whether the Trump administration was close to issuing some sort of domestic travel restriction.

“We’re looking very carefully at the data every day and that’s why you see this escalation in guidelines from the president,” she said on Fox News.

She said integrating data and understanding how the new outbreaks are occurring – from travel between states, or within states – is crucial to formulating the response and updating guidelines.

“As we track down these outbreaks, if we see that that is happening from flight travel, then I think the president will react but we don’t have enough information right now to suggest that,” she said.

Asked if people were getting sick on airplanes, Birx said, “We don’t know.”

Birx also said authorities remain focused on ramping up testing in communities “so that people in the hospitals are not overrun by continuous need for diagnosis.”

In one ray of positive news, actor Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson, who tested positive for coronavirus last week, are out of a hospital in Australia, according to a video posted by their son Chet on Instagram.

“They’re still self-quarantined obviously, but they are feeling a lot better,” he said.

(Reporting by Doina Chiucu and Maria Caspani; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Alistair Bell)