More on Trump’s attacks on Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, over his decision to purchase tests from South Korea due to a shortage in his state: While the president claimed earlier that Hogan didn’t “understand” the list of labs available to do testing, Hogan actually said he was “in contact with every one” on the list, and wasn’t able to use certain labs that were federally run, according to an ABC reporter: Trump’s new press secretary did not dispute what ABC reported in a tweet response: Bloomberg spent more than $1b on failed campaign Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who had a short-lived campaign for president, spent more than $1bn on the race, according to filings out today: In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. The president has ended today’s briefing citing a range of different numbers for the potential deaths the US could have experienced, saying if the country hadn’t done lockdowns, there could have been 700,000 deaths, a million deaths, or maybe “millions”. As of today, there have been more than 41,000 deaths recorded in the US. Experts fear that the country could experience surges and second waves if states reopen too soon and if there is not enough testing and contact tracing in place. Fact check: Trump"s campaign rallies Defending his coronavirus record, Trump said: “I haven’t left the White House for months.” In fact, he held a campaign rally in March. Asked about this, he responded, “Did I hold a rally? Sorry I held a rally.” Fact check: Travel restrictions Asked why he didn’t take the virus seriously in the early phases of its spread in the US, the president repeated his claims about that his travel restrictions against China made a difference and saved many lives: “People should say I acted very early.” In fact, the administration’s travel policy did not cut off all travel from China. Although non-US citizens were prohibited from entering the country if they had traveled to China within the previous two weeks, American citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members were exempt. Similarly, Trump’s European travel restrictions exempted citizens, residents and their families. And initially, the restrictions didn’t apply to the UK and Ireland, as well as most Eastern European countries. Epidemiologists have told the Guardian that these policies likely had little impact, as they were enacted after the virus was already spreading within the US.“Unfortunately, travel bans sound good,” noted Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, after Trump announced European restrictions. “But we’re way past the point where simply restricting travel is a reasonable response.” The few studies so far that have investigated the impact of travel restrictions have found that such policies may have at best delayed the spread of disease by a few days or weeks. A recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that travel restrictions and airport screenings in several countries “likely slowed the rate of exportation from mainland China to other countries, but are insufficient to contain the global spread of COVID-19. And in China, where officials shut down travel both in and out of Wuhan, the city where the Covid-19 outbreak began, the travel ban barely slowed the spread of diseases, according to a report published in Science. But there is no evidence that travel restrictions ultimately stopped the spread of coronavirus, or significantly reduced the contagion’s death toll. Trump has claimed that the criticisms of testing are “mostly partisan” and “not bipartisan”, then he discussed the criticisms by Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, who is a Republican: “He didn’t really know [about federal laboratory testing capacity]. Mike [Pence] doesn’t like to get into this stuff, he’s less controversial than I am.” The governor has said he had to get tests from South Korea due to a shortage. Trump on big businesses getting loans A reporter asked Trump about the reports that large corporations are getting small business loans while actual small businesses are struggling to get the funds they desperately need. (Shake Shack, Ruth’s Chris and other chain restaurants have won loans while independent restaurants have spoken out about their difficulties accessing the support.) Trump responded by joking that he didn’t win a loan: “I know one thing, I didn’t get any.” Regarding the loans to big businesses, he said: We’ll look into. Some people will have to return it, if we think it’s inappropriate ... If somebody got something that they think is inappropriate we will get it back...” Trump criticizes Maryland governor Reporters have again asked about Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, ordering 500,000 tests from South Korea due to shortages. Brett Giroir, with the US Department of Health and Human Services, said there was “excess capacity” for testing and claimed he wasn’t sure why the governor made that deal. Vice president Mike Pence similarly said he has been in communication with Hogan, but also wasn’t sure why he did that. Trump then attacked Hogan for securing tests, saying, “He could’ve saved a lot of money ... He needed to get a little knowledge, that would’ve been helpful.” Regarding testing facilities in his state, Hogan just told CNN “more than half [of those listed by the federal government] in Maryland were federal facilities that we have desperately been trying to get help from, or military facilities”. Trump on oil prices Asked about oil prices, the president said: “It’s more of a financial thing than an oil situation.” He also downplayed the news of oil prices tanking, saying “It’s very short term.” A reporter has asked president about owners of small businesses who can’t access loans because of their criminal record. The reporter cited a specific case of someone who was previously convicted of a non-violent felony and employs people reentering society who has been forced to lay off employees because he can’t access loans. The president responded, “He’s a criminal and he wanted to get a loan? I’ll look into that…” Dr Deborah Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator for the White House, was just asked about South Carolina’s decision to reopen some businesses even though the state hasn’t yet met the criteria set by the task force guidelines. Dr Birx avoided criticizing the state, but said: We have asked every governor to follow the guidelines.” Fact check: states" tests Vice president, Mike Pence, is speaking and has praised the testing efforts in Arizona, Florida, California, Michigan, and other states. He also claimed the US currently has “enough testing capacity” for every state to start phase one of the White House recommendations for re-opening their economies. In fact, a number of governors have expressed concerns that the testing capacity is not yet adequate for reopening the country. Most prominently this week, Republican governor Larry Hogan of Maryland has said his state was dealing with a shortage and negotiated to get 500,000 tests from South Korea. At the briefing, the president defended the administration against complaints from some state governors, from both parties, that the federal government is not helping them get the type of testing for the spread of the virus that will help states plan for careful reopening of their economies. Trump singled out Illinois’ governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, and Maryland’s governor Larry Hogan, a Republican and the chairman of the national governors association. Trump said that the federal government had sent to each state a lost of the testing facilities in their state, but claimed that Pritzker and Hogan didn’t understand what they had been told even though it was “very simple”. Hogan moments ago went on CNN for a live interview and said that, as governor, he was well aware of the testing facilities in his state. “We already know where the lab facilities are,” Hogan said. He added: “More than half [of those listed by the federal government] in Maryland were federal facilities that we have desperately been trying to get help from, or military facilities.” Maybe someone fed those comments swiftly back to vice president Mike Pence in the WH briefing room, because he just declared that the administration would make such federal and military facilities “available to governors across the states.” Fact check: testing quality Trump is complaining, again, about the media’s coverage of ventilators, while also claiming that testing is going to be even easier for the US to handle than ventilators, since “ventilators are big machines” and “you need a group of people that really know what they are doing.” Complaining about the press, he said, “It used to be ventilators, ventilators, ventilators. Now it’s, testing, testing, testing.” But, he claimed, “we are way advanced” on testing. In fact, some of the initial coronavirus tests sent out to states were seriously flawed. Part of the problem came from the CDC shunning the World Health Organization (WHO) template for tests, and insisted on developing a more complicated version that correctly identified Covid-19, but also flagged other viruses – resulting in false positives. Other countries – after their first coronavirus case – swiftly asked private companies to develop their own tests. South Korea, which recorded its first case on the same day as the US, did so within a week. The US only allowed laboratories and hospitals to conduct their own tests on 29 February, almost six weeks after the first case was confirmed. Fact check: personal protective equipment Trump is back at the podium and has claimed that there is no shortage or issue with personal protective equipment (PPE). Regarding masks and gloves and other critical supplies, the president said: “What we’re doing is delivering a number that nobody anywhere in the world is delivering.” In fact, for weeks healthcare workers have been speaking out and even demonstrating outside hospitals at the life-threatening shortages of PPE. Medical staff are reusing and recycling masks and gowns. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has already published crisis guidelines, which include workers potentially wearing homemade masks. Doctors, nurses and other frontline health workers in the coronavirus crisis have taken to begging for equipment online, using the Twitter hashtag #GetMePPE. In New York City, healthcare workers have been instructed to keep working, even if they have had high-risk exposure to coronavirus patients. Here’s the CDC on 10 April: PPE is used everyday by healthcare personnel (HCP) to protect themselves, patients, and others when providing care. PPE helps protect HCP from potentially infectious patients and materials, toxic medications, and other potentially dangerous substances used in healthcare delivery. PPE shortages are currently posing a tremendous challenge to the US healthcare system because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Healthcare facilities are having difficulty accessing the needed PPE and are having to identify alternate ways to provide patient care.” Todd Semonite, the Army Corps of Engineers chief, is here at the press conference talking about hospital work during coronavirus. Trump took a break from talking about the pandemic to request that Semonite provide an update on construction of the president’s border wall, which continues during the Covid-19 crisis. Trump told Semonite he could stay to keep watching the press conference, but Semonite declined, saying he had a lot of building to continue doing. Read more on the continued construction of the border wall: Fact check: testing access The president also said there are efforts to ensure Americans have access to tests, including African Americans and Latinos who have been particularly hard hit by coronavirus. Overall, the US had administered more than 3.5m coronavirus tests so far, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Recently, it matched the rate of testing per capita of South Korea, though countries, including Germany, have tested a larger proportion of its population. From a very slow start, the US, with a population of 329 million, had ramped up to a testing rate of one in every 100 people — similar to South Korea. Germany has done even better, testing every 1 in 63 people. The UK, however, is behind, having tested only 1 in 230 people. In America, despite the recent increase in testing, backlogs are reported in labs across the country, and many people with symptoms — including health workers — are still struggling to access tests. Trump praised a conservative journalist, Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, calling him “respected”. CNN’s fact checker notes that the president is not always a fan: