US coronavirus news: Trump says economy 'may be' heading for recession as White House issues new Covid-19 guidelines

White House National Security Council says national quarantine rumours are 'FAKE'

As the Chinese city of Wuhan - the epicentre of the outbreak - warns the crisis remains "severe" despite a drastic decline in the number of new cases being diagnosed due to the government's control measures, the White House National Security Council has moved to deny rumours of a national quarantine being called in the US.

Here's the council's tweet:

The White House is meanwhile ordering the press corps to undertake mandatory temperature checks and seating them apart in the (seldom used) briefing room.

Here's John T Bennett's report.

Chinese tech entrepreneur Jack Ma donates huge supply of face masks and testing kits to US with first tweet

The founder of e-commerce plattorm Alibaba has joined Twitter and used his first tweet to post a photo of a huge donation of 1m face masks and 500,000 coronavirus testing kits his foundation is sending to the US.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, two brothers are being forced to donate their massive hand gel haul after receiving "hate mail and threats" for attempting to profiteer from the crisis by reselling the sanitiser on Amazon for a healthy whack.

'If we're successful in developing a vaccine, this should reach, protect and help people not only regionally but worldwide'

Dietmar Hopp, owner of the German pharmaceutical manufacturer CareVac, has issued this response to the story we mentioned early about Trump attempting to monopolise their under-development coronavirus vaccine.

Los Angeles shuts bars, restaurants and venues to slow spread of coronavirus

As states like Florida, Alabama and Hawaii announce dozens of new infections, Conrad Duncan has the latest on the City of Angels, which has has joined New York by going into partial lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak in the US, closing bars, nightclubs and entertainment venues to slow the spread of the virus.

Eric Garcetti, LA’s mayor, announced a range of emergency measures on Sunday designed to limit large gatherings and encourage social distancing between residents. Under the new strictures, bars, nightclubs, dine-in restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues, such as cinemas and live music venues, would be closed to the public from midnight on Monday.

Bars and restaurants will still be allowed to sell food but only through takeaway services.

New Orleans to offer 'drive-through' coronavirus testing as city considers curfew

  The Louisiana city will be one of four US cities to partner with the federal government to test a drive-through coronavirus testing centre programme, as officials discuss whether to put a citywide curfew in place.

Officials will also determine whether its 1,200 restaurants and countless bars will be forced to limit their hours, potentially devastating the city’s massive hospitality industry and its thousands of workers that serve a metro area of 1.2m residents and nearly 20m tourists annually.

At least two people in the city have died following the outbreak, with a bulk of the state’s 91 confirmed cases within city limits. The state’s disproportionate rate of infections rivals its much-larger neighbouring state Texas, which has four times as many people living in the state.

“The rate of infections is increasing much faster than other cities in the US,” said Jennifer Avegno, director of the New Orleans Health Department.

Huge lines in gun stores across America as country panic-buys weapons

The president might very well say this...

...given that long lines are forming outside gun stores from California to Alabama to New York State.

Here's Andrew Naughtie's report.

Arnold Schwarzenegger urges fans to self-isolate while feeding carrots to pet ponies

For some much-needed levity, let's cut to a former governor of California to see how he's coping with social distancing...

Enviably, it seems.

Here's Louis Staples's on the eccentric Hollywood action icon for Indy100.

Who won and who lost the latest 2020 showdown?

Alex Woodward has this verdict on last's night's Bernie and Joe Show, where the former was accused of attempting to use "the Force" against his foe.

 Without a live audience, what followed was a more-focused, often-aggressive and policy-driven debate between the candidates, as the Covid-19 crisis bookended the debate and gave both men a chance to frame their platforms against the crisis and offer Americans a compassionate, decisive message that has been absent from the White House, our man says.

New York Stock Exchange halts all trading as market plunges

Trading on the New York Stock Exchange was halted for 15 minutes after the Dow Jones fell 9.7 per cent – more than 2,250 points – and the S&P dropped 8 per cent on opening on Monday morning.

The plunge comes a day after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to zero in an effort to stabilise the markets following weeks of instability.

In a statement on Sunday, the US central bank said: "The coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries... The Federal Reserve is prepared to use its full range of tools to support the flow of credit to households and businesses."