With panic buying on Main Street and fear-driven sell-offs on Wall Street, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to near zero on Sunday in another emergency move to help shore up the US economy amid the rapidly escalating coronavirus pandemic.
The mayors of New York City and Los Angeles ordered restaurants, bars and cafes closed, with takeout and delivery the only options for food sales. Movie theaters, small theater houses and concert venues were also ordered closed as the US death toll from the outbreak hit 65.
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"The virus can spread rapidly through the close interactions New Yorkers have in restaurants, bars and places where we sit close together," said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. "We have to break that cycle."
For the second time since the financial crisis of 2008, the Fed cut rates at an emergency meeting, aiming for a target range of 0% to 0.25% to help put a floor under a rapidly disintegrating global economy.
US President Donald Trump, who had openly pressed the Fed for further action, called the move "terrific" and "very good news."
Store shelves have been stripped bare of essentials, schools closed and millions of jobs in jeopardy as businesses temporarily shut their doors.
"We're learning from watching other countries," Trump said. "It's a very contagious virus ... but it's something that we have tremendous control of."
Trump has faced criticism at home and abroad for sometimes downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus and overstating his administration's ability to handle it.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said the United States was entering a new phase of coronavirus testing but tempered the president's optimism.
"The worst is yet ahead for us," Fauci said, a warning he has issued frequently in the past week. "It is how we respond to that challenge that is going to what the ultimate end point is going to be."
US Vice President Mike Pence said testing for coronavirus was expanding with more than 2,000 labs across the country ready to process tests and 10 states operating drive-through testing.
The United States has lagged behind other industrialized nations in its ability to test for the coronavirus. In early March, the Trump administration said close to 1 million coronavirus tests would soon be available and anyone who needed a test would get one, a promise it failed to keep.
With limited testing available, US officials have recorded nearly 3,000 cases and 65 deaths, up from 58 on Saturday. Globally more than 162,000 are infected and over 6,000 have died.
