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Law360 (April 1, 2020, 10:38 PM EDT ) The number of Americans infected with the novel coronavirus raced past 200,000 on Wednesday, deaths approached the 5,000 mark, and President Donald Trump said that cases are "exploding" across the country. Here are four new developments to know.
Trump Sees Flare-Ups All Over America
At a White House briefing Wednesday night, Trump indicated that some states may soon start to resemble hard-hit New York. The Empire State had reported almost 84,000 cases as of Wednesday afternoon, mostly in and around New York City, far outpacing any other state.
"It could very well be that others take over from New York," said Trump, a native New Yorker. "There are ... some hot spots in other states that are really exploding."
New Jersey, which has the second-most cases, reported more than 22,000 infections as of Wednesday, and Michigan was approaching 10,000 cases. Other beleaguered states include California, Massachusetts, Illinois, Florida, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.
Trump at times Wednesday described the situation in unvarnished language, saying the outbreak will soon become "horrific" and "vicious." But he also injected notes of optimism, at one point saying, "We're hopefully going to be over this relatively quickly."
By late Wednesday, the U.S. had roughly 214,000 infections, up from about 185,000 the day before, and about 4,800 fatalities, compared to 3,700 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University and researchers at the COVID Tracking Project.
The White House is projecting 100,000 to 240,000 deaths nationwide from the pandemic. It has said that the virus is likely to peak in many places by the end of April.
White House Rejects Special ACA Enrollments
In a notable portion of Wednesday's briefing, Trump deferred to Vice President Mike Pence to explain why the administration isn't allowing a special enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act to help uninsured Americans avoid devastating medical bills for coronavirus treatment. The next ACA open enrollment period starts in November.
Pence largely dodged the question, noting that Medicaid covers low-income Americans, that Medicare covers seniors, that Congress has mandated coverage of coronavirus tests and that two large insurers — Humana Inc. and Cigna Corp. — have said they will waive costs for policyholders who need treatment for COVID-19.
But Trump ultimately acknowledged that Pence hadn't provided a direct response.
"I think it's one of the greatest answers I've ever heard, because Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question," Trump told a reporter. "It's really a fair question, and it's something we're looking at."
Some states are reportedly allowing special enrollments, but most states use an online ACA marketplace that the federal government controls. The Trump administration is supporting a lawsuit at the U.S. Supreme Court that aims to invalidate the entire ACA.
China's Case Count Faces Fresh Doubts
The U.S. is the official leader in infections by a wide margin, far surpassing the 111,000 confirmed cases in Italy, 104,000 cases in Spain and 82,000 cases in China.
But the numbers in China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged late last year, are increasingly viewed with skepticism. For one thing, the country of 1.4 billion people reportedly hasn't been counting positive tests in asymptomatic individuals. Trump on Wednesday was asked whether he had received an intelligence report about deliberate undercounting by the Chinese government.
"We have not received that, but their numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side, and I'm being nice when I say that," the president replied.
President Resists Additional Federal Restrictions
The administration on Sunday extended federal guidelines that Americans avoid large gatherings as well as nonessential travel and shopping through April. But Trump on Wednesday expressed opposition to tougher action in the form of a nationwide stay-at-home order, saying he would continue deferring to governors.
"There are some states that don't have much of a problem," he said. "You have to give a little bit of flexibility."
Trump also signaled he was reluctant to ground flights, but he hinted that some limits may be in the offing.
"I am looking where flights are going into hot spots. Some of those flights I didn't like from the beginning," the commander-in-chief said. "But closing up every single flight on every single airline, that's a very, very, very rough decision. But we are thinking about hot spots, where you go from spot to spot, both hot. We'll let you know fairly soon."
Trump added that similar deliberations are taking place regarding train travel.
--Editing by Aaron Pelc.
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