The highly contagious disease has killed at least 40 people in the United States. It has affected some U.S. states particularly hard, including New York, California and Washington state, and has continued to creep into a number of other states that have acted to try to avoid becoming additional hot spots.

Classes, sports events, concerts and conferences have been cancelled across the nation, with many states declaring states of emergency.

On Friday, it was announced that the Democratic primary scheduled for Louisiana on April 4 will be postponed to June. Primary votes are still scheduled next Tuesday in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio.

Responding to numerous complaints about the shortage of coronavirus tests in the U.S, the Trump administration is also naming a so-called czar of testing at the Department of Health and Human Services to co-ordinate between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Separately, the FDA posted on Twitter that labs having problems getting supplies for collecting patient samples for testing should call the agency’s toll-free information hotline.

Optimism about emergency legislation

Trump’s announcement came as Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the administration hope to announce agreement on a coronavirus aid package to reassure anxious Americans by providing sick pay, free testing and other resources in an effort to address the mounting crisis and calm teetering financial markets.

Pelosi was engaged in talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who said Friday morning that negotiations were going very well.

«I think we’re very close to getting this done,» Mnuchin said, appearing on CNBC.

On the COVID-19 illness, Mnuchin cautioned that «people should understand the numbers are going to go up before they go down,» reflecting the recent change in tone from the administration after initially downplaying the seriousness of the virus’s implications on the U.S. health system and economy.

The House aid package builds on an emergency $8.3 billion US measure approved last week and is aimed at providing additional health and financial resources to arrest the sudden spread of the pandemic and the kind of economic fallout unseen in a generation. Pelosi promised in a letter to colleagues that a third package was yet to come.

The new sick leave benefit would require businesses to provide up to 14 days of paid leave to workers who are home quarantined with the virus, with the federal government reimbursing them through tax credits. The bill facilitates unemployment benefits for those laid off during the crisis and boosts food and nutrition programs for working families, students and seniors. Work requirements for food stamps would be suspended, and states would be given additional Medicaid funds to cope with the crisis.

«We felt that putting together something that the American people can see co-operation on between the two parties in this difficult moment would be a confidence builder,» said Richard Neal, Democratic chair of the House’s ways and means committee.

Pelosi promised that a third coronavirus package will follow soon, though the House is adjourning Friday for a previously scheduled recess. That measure will include more aggressive steps to boost the U.S. economy, which economists fear has already slipped into recession.

We’re at a critical point now as we seek to blunt the rise in cases to make sure it’s a hill, not a mountain.– Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institutes of Health

There’s little appetite within either party for Trump’s proposal to suspend collection of the 6.2 per cent Social Security payroll tax, and Democratic economic stimulus ideas like more generous food stamp benefits aren’t favoured by Republicans.

States are already clamouring for fiscal relief from Washington as the virus threatens their budgets.

Closures appropriate amid testing lag: expert

Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease head at the National Institutes of Health, said in several television interviews Friday that more tests would be available over the next week, but that officials should not wait before trying to mitigate the virus’s effects.

«We will have considerably more testing in the future, but you don’t wait for testing,» Fauci said on CBS This Morning.

«We’re at a critical point now as we seek to blunt the rise in cases to make sure it’s a hill, not a mountain,» Fauci added.

«The next few weeks, for most Americans, what you’re going to see is an acceleration of cases,» Fauci he told MSNBC.

Less-affected areas can take less drastic measures such as physical separation, avoiding crowds and not travelling unnecessarily, Fauci said.

For most people, the novel coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to be over it.

The coronavirus crisis also got personal for Trump and some members of Congress.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was in isolation at a hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus. He met with Attorney General William Barr and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, among others, last week.

That followed a report that Jair Bolsonaro’s communications chief, Fabio Wajngarten, tested positive for coronavirus. Photos of the Brazilian president and Wajngarten hobnobbing with top Republicans as well as Trump and Pence last weekend at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort have been posted to social media.

It was the first time someone infected with the virus was known to have been so near the president.

While several members of Congress like senators Rick Scott of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina announced they are going into self-isolation, the White House has said Trump is not getting tested.

Asked by reporters Thursday whether he should be tested, Trump replied, «I am not concerned.»