WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and the White House coronavirus (COVID-19) task force held the daily briefing Friday evening.
The briefing comes shortly after the president signed the $2.2 trillion economic rescue package, which will help Americans after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the economy hard.
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Read the latest updates below:
— Trump signs massive stimulus with cash payments to Americans.
— Trump issues order to require GM to produce ventilators.
— Disney theme parks in Florida, California closed indefinitely.
— WHO’s emergencies chief says pandemic has no clear end date.
President Donald Trump has issued an order that the government can use to require General Motors to produce ventilators under Defense Production Act.
Trump signed the order Friday in the Oval Office as health professionals around the country lamented shortages of the machines that help patients with the coronavirus breathe.
In a joint statement, GM and Ventec Life Systems said they will build critical care ventilators at GM’s manufacturing plant in Kokomo, Indiana, and start shipping them as soon as next month. GM also is to produce surgical masks at its plant in Warren, Michigan, that can be used by health care workers.
In a statement, the White House accused GM of wasting time in the contracting process.
“Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have 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,” the statement said.
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ORLANDO, Fla. — The Walt Disney Co. is indefinitely extending closures at its theme park resorts in Florida and California because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The company had closed Disneyland in Southern California and Disney World outside Orlando in mid-March with plans to reopen at the start of April, but Disney said Friday the resorts would remain closed until further notice. It cited directions given by health and government officials.
The company has been paying its employees during the closure, and Disney said it would continue to pay its tens of thousands of hourly workers through April 18.
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UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the world is not only fighting the “common enemy” of the coronavirus “but our enemy is also the growing surge of misinformation” about COVID-19.
To overcome the virus, he said “we need to urgently promote facts and science” and “promote hope and solidarity over despair and division.”
He said the U.N. is launching a COVID-19 Communications for Solidarity Initiative to rapidly inform the global public about the facts and science, “and promote and inspire acts of humanity around the world.”
Guterres spoke Friday at the first joint video briefing for the 193 U.N. member nations that also included the presidents of the Security Council, General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council as well as a question-and-answer session. The video failed for about 10 minutes while the secretary-general was speaking, but then resumed.