March 27 coronavirus news

Joe Biden said Friday that he, as president, would recommend every governor lock down their states for several weeks to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The question stemmed from billionaire investor Bill Gates telling CNN on Thursday that the United States should shut down the entire country for a short period of time to control the spread of the coronavirus. Gates suggested closing for six to 10 weeks.

Biden added that “two weeks in what is going to be a long fight to deal with this is a small price to pay,” adding that is especially the case because the country can “compensate people for the lost time” with legislation like the sweeping bill that President Donald Trump signed on Friday.

Biden did not explicitly endorse the length of Gates' suggestion.

Biden’s comments stand in opposition to Trump, who has not called for a nationwide lockdown and has said he hopes the nation will re-open by mid-April.

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Joe Biden said he’s trying to get through his days just like anyone else with a stay-at-home order at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

The former vice president said his morning starts with a conference call with his campaign’s medical team where they give him a briefing on the latest Covid-19 numbers that spans 20 minutes to an hour.

That briefing covers “how much has been done…equipment we can get to people.” The medical briefing is followed by another meeting with his economic team, including economists who worked with him in the White House, about the recent legislation passed and “what the Trump administration has done, has not done.”

Biden said he speaks to all five of his grandkids either by phone or text. The two children who live a mile from his home walk through the woods to Biden’s house.

Sometimes, Biden said, he and his wife Jill walk the track at a nearby school with their dog.

“I am doing things like we are doing with you now. I’m trying to keep abreast, and trying to keep on top of our President, and trying to do things that could’ve been done, or doing faster,” he said.

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Joe Biden said he’s spoken with several governors in recent days “to see what’s happening on the ground for them” as their states react to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Biden named four Democratic governors with whom he has spoken: Washington’s Jay Inslee, a one-time 2020 presidential rival; Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, who is one of four co-chairs of Biden’s campaign; Pennsylvania’s Tom Wolf; and Louisiana’s John Bel Edwards — who Biden said he’d missed a call from earlier Friday afternoon. 

The former vice president also said he has spoken with Republican governors. 

Trump earlier Friday had singled out Inslee and Whitmer for criticism, saying they had not been appreciative enough of federal efforts as their states have become epicenters of the growing crisis. “I want them to be appreciative,” Trump said. 

He said he instructed Vice President Mike Pence not to speak with Inslee and Whitmer — but Pence has done so anyway. 

“I say ‘Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington, you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan,’” Trump said. 

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CNN town hall has taken unique steps to broadcast tonight due the coronavirus pandemic.

Host Anderson Cooper's camera is being robotically controlled in order to abide by social distancing guidelines while former Vice President Joe Biden is filmed from his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is participating in a live CNN town hall tonight focused on the coronavirus outbreak

"The Coronavirus Pandemic A CNN Democratic Presidential Town Hall with Joe Biden" will feature questions submitted by individuals living in some of the communities hit hardest by the coronavirus. CNN's Anderson Cooper will moderate the hourlong discussion on the impact to Americans' health, the repercussions for the nation's economy and the human toll to US society.

Biden will join the town hall via satellite from his home studio in Delaware.

The Democratic presidential candidate has been critical of President Donald Trump's response to the pandemic, and this week he told CNN's Jake Tapper that he thinks Trump should allow the experts and scientists to do the talking.

A 102-year-old woman has recovered from coronavirus in the northern Italian city of Genoa after spending more than 20 days in hospital, doctors who treated her and her nephew told CNN.

"Italica represents a hope for all the elderly facing this pandemic" Sicbaldi added. The average age of those who have tested positive for coronavirus and subsequently died in Italy is 78, according to the country's National Health Institute. 

Grondona was hospitalized at the beginning of March for "mild heart failure," Sicbaldi told CNN.

"She only had some mild coronavirus symptoms, so we tested her and she was positive, but we did very little, she recovered on her own," Sicbaldi added.

Doctors say her case impressed them so much that they decided to study it deeper.

Grondona left the hospital on March 26 and will now spend time recovering in a care home. "I don’t know what her secret is, but I know she is a free and independent woman," her nephew Renato Villa Grondona told CNN.

Her only son died in the US a few decades ago. Grondona's nephew said she suffered from death. "But she loves life, dancing and music, she loves Freddy Mercury and Valentino Rossi," Villa Grondona said, referring to the multiple MotoGP World champion.

WNBA player Sydney Wiese, a guard with the Los Angeles Sparks, tested positive for coronavirus after playing overseas in Spain, according to a statement from the Sparks.

Wiese has been in isolation in Phoenix, according to the statement.

In a statement on Friday, the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Dr. Monica Bharel, said she has tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.   

Bharel added: “I hope everyone will continue to take seriously the threat of COVID-19.”

Vice President Mike Pence said more than 685,000 coronavirus tests have been completed in the United States as of Friday morning.

Pence said that hospitals across the country are now reporting their testing numbers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Federal Emergency Management Agency in real time, something that was not the case when testing first began. 

However, those numbers are not being reflected on the CDC’s US testing page, which paints a far different picture. 

The CDC's number are lower because they’re not reporting out data from private or commercial labs.