JUDY WOODRUFF: On the COVID-19 front tonight, the U.S. death toll rises to 30, with more
than 800 confirmed cases. That is up from than one-third on Monday.
Officials order new cancellations, closures and quarantines. Congress and the president
huddle on softening the economic blow. The Biden and Sanders campaigns cancel rallies
tonight in Ohio. And the stock market recovers half its losses from a day earlier.
Amna Nawaz begins our coverage.
AMNA NAWAZ: After Monday's steep sell-off, signs of recovery on Wall Street, as investors
reacted to new efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, in New York, some of the strongest
measures yet.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): It is a dramatic action, but it is the largest cluster in the
country.
AMNA NAWAZ: Governor Andrew Cuomo sent the National Guard into New Rochelle, outside
New York City, and closed schools and businesses in a one-mile radius for two weeks.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO: New Rochelle has more than double the cases of New York City. I mean,
it's true. It's a phenomenon.
AMNA NAWAZ: Also today, North Carolina joined Colorado in imposing a statewide emergency.
In all, more than two-thirds of states in the U.S. now have confirmed cases of the novel
coronavirus, with the majority in Washington state.
In Olympia, Governor Jay Inslee warned that more cases are coming, raising the risk for
seniors.
GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): Remind them that this is not a time to exposing themselves to large
groups of people in confined spaces.
AMNA NAWAZ: And in Oakland, California, some 2,000 passengers waited in turn to leave the
docked grand Princess Cruise ship and enter quarantine.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., President Trump met with insurance executives and pledged
to help the struggling airline and cruise industries.
Later, he met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, as they weigh any legislative next steps,
still days from coming together.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Well, there are going to be a number of different things considered
in putting together this package, which, as I said before, I hope ends up being a bipartisan,
bicameral-negotiated way forward that will reassure others.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): This shouldn't be a partisan issue. We want to solve the
problem. We're ready to work with the administration on a coordinated, government-wide, focused
plan to respond to the coronavirus.
AMNA NAWAZ: Among the options under consideration, payroll tax relief, help for hourly wage workers,
and making testing and treatment more affordable.
The president also addressed questions about his own health, after contact with lawmakers
now under self-quarantine.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I feel extremely good. I feel very good, but
I guess it's not a big deal to get tested. And it's something I would do.
But, again, spoke to the White House doctor, terrific guy, talented guy. He said he sees
no reason to do it. There's no symptoms, no anything.
AMNA NAWAZ: One of those lawmakers? Republican Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina,
tapped to be White House chief of staff. He was exposed to the virus at a Washington area
conference last week, and announced he would self-isolate as a precaution, even though
he tested negative.
The availability of testing kits led to questions today in a hearing with the director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Any physician
that feels there's a need, or public health person, can order that test. But it was a
series of going through that regulatory process to get that test available.
REP. ROSA DELAURO (D-CT): But I think the conclusion is that we are behind the curve
in testing, when South Korea can test 10,000 people in a day.
AMNA NAWAZ: Overseas, the streets of Rome lay quiet, as a nationwide travel ban took
effect in Italy, hard-hit by the virus.
SILVANA, Rome Resident (through translator): This is the best thing the government could
do, because people were not respecting the rules. A stronger decision was needed to counter
the situation.
AMNA NAWAZ: At train stations, masked police officers checked documents for all passengers,
who had to justify their travel. Poland announced health checks for travelers crossing its border
from Germany. And Austria conducted similar checks along its border with Italy.
In China, President Xi Jinping toured Wuhan, the epicenter of the original outbreak, and
said the worst there was over.
XI JINPING, Chinese President (through translator): I extend greetings and thanks to you and to
all the community workers nationwide, including those fighting on the front line.
AMNA NAWAZ: And, in South Korea, the number of new cases fell to its lowest level in almost
two weeks.
Back in the U.S., the markets endured ups and downs, but finished the day finished higher,
despite the uncertainty of where the virus will move next.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Amna Nawaz.
JUDY WOODRUFF: In the end, Wall Street recovered about half of its record losses from Monday.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1,167 points to close back above 25000. The Nasdaq
rose nearly 400 points, and the S&P 500 added 135.
All of this as hopes build for a major economic stimulus package from Washington.
We get more on the federal government's response now with our Lisa Desjardins and Yamiche Alcindor.
So, Yamiche, to you first.
What are the options that the president is looking at? What are you hearing at the White
House?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, the president is looking for the fastest possible economic response
to the coronavirus.
And he's looking at two tracks, first, what he can do individually through some sort of
national emergency declaration in the next week or so, and he's also looking at working
with Congress and negotiating some sort of larger legislative bill.
On what he can do himself, he's looking at some sort of executive action where he would
be able to do a couple things, including giving small businesses loans. He also wants to try
to give some sort of financial relief to hourly workers that have already lost paychecks because
they had to be -- they had to self-quarantine or because they had the coronavirus.
The other thing he's looking at is trying to defer tax payments, so that, if you owe
the government money, you might have between 90 to 180 days to pay the government, which
would put a little bit more money in your pocket short-term.
Then he's looking at Congress for a payroll tax cut. That would be some -- some are saying
between 2 percent. That would be what President Obama did in 2010. Larry Kudlow is in the
White House right now briefing as I speak. He's saying that this would be something that
would last through the end of the year.
But the president is gearing up for a fight with Democrats on the Hill, because some Democrats
are already saying that this is a tax cut that looks something like possibly the 2017
tax cut that they say benefited the wealthy people and not working-class individuals.
So the president is looking at two things to try to figure out how to stem the economic
issues that are coming with this virus.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Lisa, it's true that there are some different ideas in the Congress.
LISA DESJARDINS: Right.
Yamiche and I were a team reporting on the Hill today. And I think we can safely say
that there are a lot of ideas, but not yet a clear focus. Democrats and some Republicans
are skeptical of this pay tax -- payroll tax cut, because that payroll tax comes and helps
Social Security and Medicare.
Seems to be warming up today. But that kind of 2 percent cut would be over $100 billion
in spending. Marco Rubio told me he thinks this whole package could be $300 billion,
if it's a larger payroll tax cut. We're talking about very big dollars here, Judy.
Other ideas floating today Republicans, three of them, senators, raised the idea of including
a highway infrastructure bill as part of this. That's something others think is not related
at all.
But if you're talking about economic stimulus, it enters the picture. The point here is that
there are a lot of ideas. They don't yet have a real handle on what exactly will help the
workers who probably will need it the most.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, no doubt, Yamiche, the White House trying to deal with concerns,
rising concerns, on the part of the American people and fears.
I mean, the death toll is going up. The number of cases is going up exponentially.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right.
And White House officials just now said that it's guaranteed that the numbers of deaths
and the number of cases in coronavirus will be going up.
Now, today, President Trump, when he was visiting the Hill, was playing sort of calmer in chief.
Here's what he had to say:
DONALD TRUMP: We're prepared. And we're doing a great job with it. And it will go away.
Just stay calm. It will go away. We want to protect our shipping industry, our cruise
industry, cruise ships.
We want to protect our airline industry, very important. But everybody has to be vigilant
and has to be careful, but be calm. It's really working out.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: So, there again is the president trying to be calmer in chief. He's trying
to tell people, calm down, take a deep breath, things are going to get better.
But, of course, the issue is, of course, that the president has contradicted some of the
health officials working for his own administration. He said at one point that there was going
to be a miracle, that the cases were going to go down. He was on Capitol Hill today shaking
hands, which is what health officials have said Americans should try not to do.
They should be washing their hands very vehemently and very frequently. But the president has
been saying other things. But, today, he did acknowledge that the cases will go up. But
when he was asked about the cases possibly reaching to 100 million Americans infected,
he didn't tamper that down.
Instead, he said: I have seen a lot of different numbers, and I'm just telling people the risks
continue to be low.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Lisa, right now, what is it, seven members of Congress have been under
quarantine?
How is the Capitol doing in terms of dealing with all this?
LISA DESJARDINS: That, again, is a very mixed picture.
When you talk to senators, some of them are even joking about this. I spoke to Senator
Pat Roberts and his aide. He said, I'd like to self quarantine at Mar-a-Lago.
So he's trying in some sense to walk this line of not increasing panic. But, also, many
staffers, Judy, say they're not taking this seriously enough at the Capitol.
While I saw some senators using their elbow to hit an elevator button, the truth is, they're
not really changing their patterns very much. There are a few, fewer handshakes, some travel,
like going to NATO next week. Some senators are not going there.
But there are more serious considerations going on as well, Judy. I can report from
multiple sources that the sergeant at arms at the Senate is looking at trying to find
an alternate location, should the Capitol itself be seen as not a healthy place for
senators to meet.
That is normal in this kind of situation. But that tells you how high the issue has
risen at this point.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Interesting, in the wake of Speaker Pelosi saying, we're going to keep
going, no matter what.
LISA DESJARDINS: That's right. That's right. They just want a backup plan.
And also want to note, quickly, on the Biden and Sanders campaign canceling their events
in Ohio, that is because Ohio announced their first cases of coronavirus today. Joe Biden,
we expect to speak in Philadelphia instead tonight. So this is having that political
effect that we expected.
JUDY WOODRUFF: For sure.
Lisa Desjardins, Yamiche Alcindor, thank you.