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Still, there were doubts from public health experts that the White House’s new testing targets were sufficient.

Monday’s developments were meant to fill critical gaps in White House plans to begin easing restrictions, ramping up testing for the virus while shifting the president’s focus toward recovery from the economic collapse caused by the outbreak. The administration unveiled a “blueprint” for states to scale up their testing in the coming week — a tacit admission, despite public statements to the contrary, that testing capacity and availability over the past two months have been lacking.

The new testing targets would ensure states had enough COVID-19 tests available to sample at least 2.6 percent of their populations each month — a figure already met by a majority of states. Areas that have been harder hit by the virus would be able to test at double that rate, or higher, the White House said.

The testing issue has bedeviled the administration for months. Trump told reporters on March 6 during a visit to the CDC in Atlanta that “anybody that wants a test can get a test,” but the reality has proved to be vastly different.

The initial COVID-19 test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was contaminated, and early kits operated only on platforms able to perform a small number of tests per day. While the rate of testing increased as tests developed for higher-capacity platforms, they were still limited by shortages of supplies, from nasal swabs to the reagents used to process the samples.

Administration officials maintained Monday that the limiting factor now is actually the availability of samples from people who have been tested — either because guidelines on who could be tested are too stringent or because there are not enough health workers able to take nasal swab samples from them.

The CDC moved to address one of those concerns Monday, expanding the list of people to be prioritized for virus testing to include those who show no symptoms but are in high-risk settings like nursing homes. And Trump met with leaders of businesses including CVS, Walmart, and Kroger, who said they were working to expand access to tests across the country.

“Testing is not going to be a problem at all,” Trump said later in the Rose Garden, AP reported.

However, many of the administration’s past pledges and goals on testing have not been met.

Jeremy Konyndyk, a disaster preparedness expert who helped lead the Obama administration response to Ebola, said the administration’s testing plans are well short of what is needed.

Researchers at Harvard have estimated the country needs to be testing a minimum of 500,000 people per day, and possibly many more. Konyndyk said the aim should be 2 million to 3 million per day. Trump said the current total, up sharply in recent days, is over 200,000 per day.

Konyndyk said: “Over the past month, we’ve doubled or if you want to be really generous tripled the testing capacity in this country. We need to take where we are now and expand it tenfold.”

The testing blueprint for states provides details missing from the administration’s guidelines for them to return to normal operations, which were released more than a week ago. It includes a focus on surveillance testing as well as “rapid response” programs to isolate those who test positive and identify those with whom they had come in contact. The administration aims to have the market “flooded” with tests for the fall when COVID-19 is expected to recur alongside the seasonal flu.

Trump and administration medical experts outlined the plan on a call with governors Monday afternoon, before unveiling them publicly in a Rose Garden press conference.

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The reopening of shuttered businesses in states across the United States has become a political hot-button issue as the shutdowns to curb the spread of the virus have hammered the US economy.

Protesters in several states over the last couple of weeks have demanded a rollback on orders that have closed businesses and other activities deemed to be nonessential.

“Don’t let the Communist take over of our country … stand strong, be united and stand tall and proud for America,” said a protester who voiced his displeasure through a bullhorn, Reuters reported.

Wisconsin Capitol Police said about 1,500 people attended the gathering and there were no arrests and no citations issued after breaking lockdown.

About a third of the protesters wore face masks, including a group of men brandishing assault rifles.

There was also a quiet counter-protest – a woman standing under a tree wearing a face mask, a bottle of hand sanitizer on her hip, holding a sign that said, “Please Go Home.”

The protests have angered governors trying to contain coronavirus outbreaks in their states through social distancing measures largely ignored by the demonstrators.

The coronavirus death toll topped 50,000 on Friday, as Wisconsin officials reported 304 new cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the highly contagious virus. That was the largest one-day increase in Wisconsin since the outbreak began.

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The “People’s Motorcade” protest featured a procession of vehicles past the White House and to the hotel, with an inflatable Trump chicken making an appearance. Outside Trump International Hotel, black plastic bags filled with cardboard were left to look like victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

Aside from protesting Donald Trump’s response, some in the group said they were calling for more personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care professionals and frontline workers, The Hill reported.

Those who joined in the protest were careful about social distancing, with most people staying in their cars and speeches taking place over the Zoom video conferencing platform rather than on a stage.

The protest was organized in part by the Center for Popular Democracy, according to The Washington Post.

The group’s senior director of mobilization and advocacy, Jennifer Flynn Walker, told The Post the demonstrators are “angry at Trump, but mostly we’re trying to save the lives of our neighbors and our friends.”

“When the president lies, people literally die, especially given his most recent advice that people drink disinfectant or inject it or whatever,” Flynn Walker told The Post.

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His comments came shortly before the number of US fatalities — already the world’s highest — reached a new daily record and became the heaviest one-day death toll of any nation.

“It is clear that our aggressive strategy is working,” he told a news conference late Wednesday in Washington. “The battle continues but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases.”

Trump said he would be announcing guidelines for a reduction in the lockdown in some states, possibly taking effect before the end of this month.

Earlier, Germany also unveiled its plans for cautious reopening, becoming the first major European nation to take on the delicate task of restarting its economy without triggering a new wave of infections before a vaccine can be developed.

Facing a difficult reelection in November, Trump predicted that the US economy, the world’s largest, would “come back quickly” from the paralysis induced by measures taken to slow the virus.

Around the world, the total number of COVID-19 cases soared past two million, according to an AFP tally, and the death toll topped 134,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US saw 2,569 deaths over a 24-hour period, data from Johns Hopkins showed, with total US deaths above 28,300

In Riyadh, G20 nations of the world’s major economies announced a one-year debt moratorium for the world’s poorest nations, as the global economy enters the worst recession in a century.

Fallout, meanwhile, continued over Trump’s attack on the World Health Organization and suspension of US funding to the UN agency.

Despite criticism, Trump repeated his accusations Wednesday, saying the WHO covered up the extent of the virus when it first appeared in China, and that as a result France, Italy, and Spain were caught unawares.

“Tragically, other nations put their trust in the WHO,” he said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said this is “not the time” to cut WHO funding, while billionaire Bill Gates, a major WHO contributor, called the move “dangerous.”

European allies were similarly disapproving and Washington’s rivals also took aim — Russia condemning the “selfish approach” of the US, and China and Iran blasting the decision.

– Edging back toward normal –

In Europe, Denmark began reopening schools for younger children after a month-long closure and Finland lifted a two-week rail and road blockade on the Helsinki region.

Lithuania said it would allow smaller shops to reopen from Thursday.

Other countries are tweaking confinement rules, with Iran set to let some small businesses reopen and India allowing millions of rural people to return to work.

In South Korea, people went to the polls on Wednesday and delivered a strong show of support for President Moon Jae-in, commending his handling of the epidemic.

Once home to the world’s second-largest outbreak, South Korea has largely brought the virus under control through widespread testing, contact-tracing, and social distancing.

A full-scale return to normality still appears a long way off in most other countries.

Harvard scientists have warned that repeated periods of social distancing could be needed as far ahead as 2022 to avoid overwhelming hospitals.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has allowed work to restart in some factories and building sites, warned that “nothing will be the same until a vaccine is found.”

Belgium extended its stay-at-home order until at least May 3 and banned mass gatherings until the end of August.

– ‘Extreme caution’ –

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the first steps in undoing coronavirus restrictions that have plunged the economy into a recession.

Most shops will be allowed to open once they have “plans to maintain hygiene” although schools must stay closed until May 4 and a ban on large public events will remain in place until August 31.

“We have to proceed with extreme caution,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

Schools will gradually be reopened with priority given to pupils about to take leaving examinations.

The government urged people to wear face masks when out shopping or on public transport, but stopped short of making it a requirement like in neighboring Austria.

– Trouble yet to come –

On the horizon looms the worst economic downturn in a century, which the IMF has said could see $9 trillion wiped from the global economy.

Germany is already in recession and US manufacturing production plummeted 6.3 percent last month, its biggest fall in seven decades.

In France, more than a third of workers are on temporary unemployment, the government said.

In poorer, more densely populated countries, governments are still struggling to enforce restrictions on movement that are piling misery on the needy.

Fears over hunger and possible social unrest are especially acute in parts of Africa and Latin America.

In Ecuador hunger trumps fear of the virus for residents in rundown areas of the badly affected city of Guayaquil.

“The police come with a whip to send people running, but how do you say to a poor person ‘Stay home’ if you don’t have enough to eat?” said Carlos Valencia, a 35-year-old teacher.

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But governors from both parties were quick to push back, noting they have primary responsibility for ensuring public safety in their states and would decide when it’s safe to begin a return to normal operations.

Trump would not offer specifics about the source of his asserted power, which he claimed, despite constitutional limitations, was absolute.

“When somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total,” Trump said Monday at the White House. “The governors know that”, AP reported.

The comments came not long after Democratic leaders in the Northeast and along the West Coast announced separate state compacts to coordinate their efforts to scale back stay-at-home orders or reopen businesses on their own timetables.

Anxious to put the crisis behind him, Trump has been discussing with senior aides how to roll back federal social distancing recommendations that expire at the end of the month.

While Trump has issued national recommendations advising people to stay home, it has been governors and local leaders who have instituted mandatory restrictions, including shuttering schools and closing non-essential businesses. Some of those orders carry fines or other penalties, and in some jurisdictions extend into the early summer.

And governors made clear Monday they wouldn’t tolerate pressure to act before they deem it safe.

“All of these executive orders are state executive orders and so, therefore, it would be up to the state and the governor to undo a lot of that,” New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said on CNN.

“The government doesn’t get opened up via Twitter. It gets opened up at the state level,” said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

Meanwhile, governors were banding together, with New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Rhode Island agreeing to coordinate their actions. The governors of California, Oregon, and Washington announced a similar pact. While each state is building its own plan, the three West Coast states have agreed to a framework saying they will work together, put their residents’ health first and let science guide their decisions.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, stressed the efforts would take time.

“The house is still on fire,” Murphy said on a conference call with reporters. “We still have to put the fire out, but we do have to begin putting in the pieces of the puzzle that we know we’re going to need … to make sure this doesn’t reignite.”

Trump, however, insisted it was his decision to make.

“The president of the United States calls the shots,” he said, promising to release a paper outlining his legal argument.

Trump can use his bully pulpit to pressure states to act or threaten them with consequences, but the Constitution gives public health and safety responsibilities primarily to state and local officials.

Though Trump abandoned his goal of beginning to roll back social distancing guidelines by Easter, he has been itching to reboot an economy that has dramatically contracted as businesses have shuttered, leaving millions of people out of work and struggling to obtain basic commodities. The closure has also undermined Trump’s reelection message, which hinged on a booming economy.

Trump’s claim that he could force governors to reopen their states also represents a dramatic shift in tone. For weeks Trump has argued that states, not the federal government, should lead the response to the crisis. And he has refused to publicly pressure states to enact stay-at-home restrictions, citing his belief in local control of government.

While Trump can use his daily White House briefings and Twitter account to try to shape public opinion and pressure governors to bend to his will, “there are real limits on the president and the federal government when it comes to domestic affairs,” John Yoo, a University of California at Berkeley law school professor, said on a recent Federalist Society conference call.

Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, a supporter of Trump, said the question of when to lift restrictions would be “a joint effort” between Washington and the states.

Talk about how and when to reboot the nation’s economy has come as Trump has bristled at criticism that he was slow to respond to the virus and that lives could have been saved had social distancing recommendations been put in place sooner.

That frustration was amplified by comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, who told CNN on Sunday that, “obviously,” had the country “started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives.”

Trump responded by reposting a tweet that included the line, “Time to #FireFauci,” raising alarms that Trump might consider trying to oust the 79-year-old doctor. But at Monday’s briefing, Trump insisted Fauci’s job was safe after Fauci took the podium to try to explain his comments.

Trump has complained to aides and confidants about Fauci’s positive media attention and his willingness to contradict the president in interviews and from the briefing room stage, according to two Republicans close to the White House. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal conversations.

But Trump has told aides that he knows blowback to remove Fauci would be fierce and that – at least for now – he is stuck with the doctor. On more than one occasion, however, he has urged that Fauci be left out of task force briefings or have his speaking role curtailed, according to the Republicans.

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The coronavirus outbreak has now claimed the lives of at least 20,506 people in the US, which leads the world in deaths and in the number of declared infections — at least 527,111, according to a tally maintained by Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.

Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe with a population a fifth the size of the US, recorded 19,468 confirmed virus fatalities.

But hopes began to rise in Western Europe and heavily infected parts of the United States that the pandemic was peaking, with many looking to China’s Wuhan, the disease’s original epicenter, where officials have been lifting stay-indoors restrictions and life began to return to normal.

Churches were expected to be empty on Easter Sunday, the climax of Holy Week for the world’s two billion-plus Christians, with congregations shuttered at home to stem a pandemic that has infected 1.7 million and killed more than 107,000.

Pope Francis live-streamed his Easter Vigil from an almost empty St Peter’s Basilica.

“Darkness and death do not have the last word,” he said.

“Over these weeks, we have kept repeating, ‘All will be well,’ clinging to the beauty of our humanity and allowing words of encouragement to rise up from our hearts. But as the days go by and fears grow, even the boldest hope can dissipate.

“Let us not give in to resignation … We can and must hope,” the pontiff said.

Francis was praised by Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for his “gesture of responsibility” to observe Easter in private.

“His words, although spoken far from Saint Peter’s Square, which was wrapped in an unreal silence, have reached everyone,” said Conte.

Worshipers in Rome stocked up on traditional Easter cakes ahead of the weekend, some piling them onto scooters outside of grocery stores, eager to maintain parts of the holiday tradition.

In the United States a handful of priests and pastors, snubbing rules and medical advice, risked arrest by announcing they would hold public services in their churches on Sunday.

But most were putting services online, and some were innovating with “drive-in” blessings.

US President Donald Trump will be among those following Easter services online, tweeting he would log on Sunday morning to watch Robert Jeffress, the leader of a Southern Baptist megachurch in Texas and an ardent supporter of the US leader.

The hardest-hit countries of Europe, and the centers of infection in the United States — New York and New Orleans — were seeing signs that infection rates were leveling off.

Numbers out of Spain offered a shred of hope Saturday: 510 new deaths, a dip in fatalities for the third day in a row.

Newly-reported coronavirus deaths in France fell by one-third from Friday to 635 on Saturday.

“A very high plateau for the epidemic appears to have been reached but the epidemic remains very active,” said French health official Jerome Salomon.

“We must absolutely remain vigilant,” he added.

Italy meanwhile said the number of daily deaths there was starting to level off — though the government resisted pressure to lift its lockdown, extending confinement measures until May 3.

New York and New Orleans saw a slowdown in the number of new infections, deaths, and hospitalization.

But Britain on Saturday recorded its second-highest daily toll, as virus-stricken Prime Minister Boris Johnson made “very good progress” after being released from intensive care, a spokeswoman said.

Although global infections stand at 1.75 million, according to an AFP tally of official counts, the real number is thought to be much higher, with many countries only testing the most serious cases.

Many experts and the World Health Organization are cautioning countries against lifting lockdown measures too quickly.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Friday that jumping the gun could lead to a “deadly resurgence” of the novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2.

From the crowded slums of Mexico City, Nairobi and Mumbai to conflict hotspots in the Middle East, there are fears that the worst is yet to come for the world’s poorest.

Trump said this past week that the disease was near its peak in the United States and he was considering ways to re-open the world’s biggest economy as soon as possible.

“We look like we’ll be coming in on the very, very low side, below the lowest side of the curve of death,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.

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As confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States surpassed 300,000 with more than 8,300 deaths, there was some encouraging news in Italy and Spain.

Europe continues to bear the brunt of the epidemic, however, accounting for over 45,000 of the worldwide deaths, and Britain reported a new daily high in fatalities.

There are now more than 1.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases around the world and there have been 64.700 deaths since the virus emerged in China late last year.

Billions of people are living under some form on lockdown. Roughly half the planet is confined at home with schools and businesses closed, at a huge cost to the global economy.

China came to a standstill on Saturday to mourn those killed in the outbreak that started in the city of Wuhan before sweeping the globe.

Across the nation, cars, trains, and ships sounded their horns, and air-raid sirens wailed.

Trump, speaking at a White House briefing, said the United States was entering “a time that’s going to be very horrendous” with “some really bad numbers.”

“This will probably be the toughest week, “he said. “There will be a lot of death.”

At the same time, Trump said the US cannot remain shut down forever.

“Mitigation does work but again, we’re not going to destroy our country,“ he said. “I’ve said it from the beginning — the cure cannot be worse than the problem, AFP reported.

“At a certain point, some hard decisions are going to have to be made.”

Pandemic-hit Italy cheered on Saturday after seeing its number of intensive care cases for coronavirus drop for the first time — from 4,068 on Friday to 3,994 on Saturday.

Even some of the most cautious Italian health officials seized on the figures as evidence that the tide may be turning in the deadliest disaster the country has faced since World War II.

“This is a very important data point,“ said civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli, adding that it “allows our hospitals to breathe.”

The daily rise in new infections across Italy has also slowed. The country reported 681 new deaths on Saturday, down from a peak of almost 1,000 just over a week ago.

Spain, which is under a near-total lockdown, saw a second successive daily fall in coronavirus-related deaths with 809 fatalities.

The total number of deaths in Spain now stands at 11,744, second only to Italy.

Although the number of new cases also slowed, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an extension of the country’s lockdown until April 25.

At a field hospital in Madrid set up at a conference center, staff applauded whenever a patient was healthy enough to be discharged.

One of them was 59-year-old builder Eduardo Lopez who gave a “10/10” rating to the staff who cared for him “with tenderness and a great dose of humanity.”

France on Saturday reported 441 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, lower than the record number of 588 recorded the previous day.

This brought the total number of deaths in France to 7,560 since the epidemic began, top health official Jerome Salomon said.

Britain’s overall death toll climbed to more than 4,300 out of nearly 42,000 cases with a five-year-old among the fatalities.

Queen Elizabeth II is to make a rare special address to Britain and Commonwealth nations on Sunday during which she will urge people to rise to the challenge posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

New York State, the US outbreak’s epicenter, saw a record 630 deaths in a single day and Governor Andrew Cuomo warned the worst was yet to come. The state has recorded a total of 3,565 deaths.

Cuomo cautioned that already strained hospitals were not prepared.

“Part of me would like to be at the apex and just, ‘let’s do it.’ But there’s part of me that says it’s good that we’re not at the apex because we’re not yet ready,“ he said.

New York City appealed for licensed medical personnel to volunteer their services.

“Anyone who’s not already in this fight, we need you,“ Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Trump said 1,000 military personnel, mostly doctors and nurses, would be deployed to New York City to “assist where they’re needed the most.”

“That’s the hottest of all the hot spots,“ he said.

Trump also said he had asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to expedite shipments of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that the US leader has been touting as a treatment for coronavirus although clinical trials are still underway.

“I may take it,“ Trump said. “I’ll have to ask my doctors about that.”

Several Western countries including the US, Germany, and France have in recent days encouraged the use of masks in public despite earlier saying that only carers needed to cover their faces.

The U-turn has angered and confused some citizens and spurred a flurry of online tutorials for DIY masks.

It comes after some studies suggested the new coronavirus can be spread through speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing. US authorities said wearing a simple homemade mask or scarf could help stem rocketing infection rates.

The World Health Organization is reviewing its guidance but has said it worries that masks could give “a false sense of security, “leading people to be more casual about hand washing and social distancing.

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