U.S. Coronavirus Blog: Deaths Soar; 'This Is The Moment'

This story on coronavirus developments is updated throughout the day. Scroll down for links helpful to day-to-day living and stories on recent developments.

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Americans faced yet another grim warning Sunday, on the same day news broke legendary NFL kicker Tom Dempsey died from complications resulting from the coronavirus and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to the hospital due to the virus.

After President Trump warned on Saturday that, “there will be a lot of death,” the assessment was seconded by U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams Sunday morning, who told Fox News the coming weeks would be the "hardest and saddest" for "most Americans' lives."

“This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized," Adams said. He added: “It’s going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that.

"I want Americans to understand that as hard as this week is going to be, there is a light at the end of the tunnel," Adams said.

Things look to get a whole lot worse before we find that light.

“The next two weeks are extraordinarily important,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said at the news conference. “This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe, and that means everybody doing the six-feet distancing, washing their hands.”

The single-day death toll from the new coronavirus in the United States topped 1,300 Saturday, the highest in a single day since the virus struck the country.

By Sunday night, more than 337,000 people in the United States were infected by the virus and more than 9,600 were dead, according to Johns Hopkins University. Around 15,000 have recovered.

As the numbers surge at their fastest rate, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending that when people go out they use some kind of face covering — but nothing medical grade because health workers need them desperately.

Making a face covering is something that just about anybody can do.

A bigger problem right now is ventilators: There just aren't enough of them, and many of those under production won't be finished and shipped in time for when they're most needed.

More than a month after the global pandemic took root in the United States, manufacturers such as automakers are overhauling their operations to produce the equipment needed for an anticipated spike in infections and hospitalizations, often under political pressure.

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Ford said it aims to produce 1,500 ventilators by the end of the month, according to a Washington Post story that outlines the problem with the late start. GM, which brought its first group of 100 project workers into training this week, said it will start producing 10,000 units per month by as early as mid-May, the Post reports

But the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that 32,000 ventilators will be required by the peak in mid-April, and the government only has about 10,000 stockpiled, according to Trump.

Ford, GM Making Ventilators, But Efforts May Be Too Late: Report

For millions of people out of work and with nowhere to go, Saturdays and Sundays haven't been much different than Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as all but a handful of states have shut down. Staying inside has become tedious. Going outside remains perilous.

On Friday, though, the Center for Disease Control and Protection recommended some homework: Find a suitable face covering for when you go out, and if you have nothing, make something.

The CDC officially recommended that all Americans wear non-surgical face masks — what many are referring to as "face coverings" — to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus.

At a Friday briefing detailing the continued U.S. response against the pandemic, Trump said the recommendation to wear face masks in public settings, such as at pharmacies and grocery stores, is voluntary.

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If you're under a stay-at-home order and are wondering why people in other states aren't, so is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. On Friday, President Trump again rejected suggestions that he order a nationwide stay-at-home order rather than allowing governors decide.

Fauci said Thursday that people in every state should be ordered to stay at home. Ohio, for example, which has been locked down since before St. Patrick's Day, is now getting an influx of people returning from Florida, which has only just issued social distancing guidelines, and weak ones at that.

“If you look at what’s going on in this country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that,” Fauci told Anderson Cooper of a nationwide order. “We really should be.”

Fauci: Everybody Should Be Under Orders To Stay At Home

New unemployment claims were filed by 6.6 million people over the past week. In the past two weeks, that's amounted to 10 million new claims.

The U.S. Supreme Court also said Friday it's postponing all oral arguments in April due to the ongoing pandemic.

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In New York City, the death toll spiked by more than 1,000 over the course of two days, though Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned the worst is yet to come.

"We're not yet at the apex," said Cuomo. "We're not yet ready for the apex."

Cuomo announced Sunday morning that there have been more than 4,100 deaths in New York state resulting from the coronavirus. The governor also shared a rare piece of good news for the hardest hit state in the country, the number of deaths over the past few days in New York has been dropping "for the first time," Cuomo said in Sunday's news conference.

The significance of that lower number is "too early to tell," he added.

In New York City, the virus is taking an especially vicious toll on residents. The city's health department reported 1,562 people had died by Thursday. That went up to 1,867 by Friday night, then shot up to the state's latest figure by Saturday morning — 2,624 people.

As part of his response, Cuomo signed an order giving the state the right to seize and redistribute ventilators. The order gives the National Guard the green light to remove ventilators and personal protection equipment from hospitals determined to have lesser need.

Other states and countries are stepping up to deliver New York City the life-saving equipment it needs. On Saturday, Cuomo said China and Oregon have both donated ventilators to New York State — 1,000 ventilators from China and 140 from Oregon.

Additional help was announced Sunday afternoon for New York City, with the U.S. Northern Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in North America, saying it was "deploying a combined 1,000 Air Force and Navy medical providers to the New York City area in the next 3 days," according to a press release.

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READ MORE BY STATE:

• CT Coronavirus Updates: When Will Surge Of Cases Hit
• Here's How Well MA Residents Comply With Stay-At-Home Advisory
• Washington, D.C. Coronavirus Update: 145 New Cases, 6 More Deaths
• Illinois Coronavirus Update April 5: Facial Coverings Recommended
• Wear A Mask! 4 Things NJ Wants You To Do During The Outbreak
• Florida Coronavirus Update: 12,151, 218 Deaths
• Maryland Coronavirus Cases Rise To 3,609; Death Toll At 67

PATCH CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES:

This article will be updated throughout the day; please check back in for updates.