Watch live: Trump says USNS Comfort will now be used for coronavirus patients

President Trump on Monday said the USNS Comfort docked in New York will now be open to coronavirus patients, after the ship was initially meant to take only non-COVID-19 patients to free up beds in New York hospitals. The floating hospital is now open to New Jersey patients, too.

“As we enter a crucial phase of our battle, we continue to send our prayers to the people of New York and New Jersey and to our whole country,” Mr. Trump said Monday. 

Members of the Coronavirus Task Force, charged with leading the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, are briefing reporters as the country heads into what Mr. Trump and other White House officials warn will be a tough and painful week. As he opened Monday’s briefing, the president expressed his best wishes to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been placed in intensive care after being diagnosed with COVID-19. 

“I want to send best wishes to a very good friend of mine and a friend to our nation, Prime Minister Boris Johnson,” Mr. Trump said as he began Monday’s briefing “We are very sad to hear he was taken into intensive care today a little while ago. Americans are all praying for his recovery. He’s been a really good friend, he’s been something very special: strong, resolute, doesn’t quit, doesn’t give up.” 

Mr. Trump balked at a Health and Human Services Inspector General report that surveyed hospitals and found a severe shortage of tests, a long wait on results, and shortage of key personal protective equipment. Mr. Trump — who late Friday night booted in the intelligence community inspector general — appeared to disbelieve the report because it was crafted by an inspector general. Inspectors general are appointed across the government to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse within agencies. 

“Did I hear the word inspector general? Really?” Mr. Trump said, demanding that the reporter who asked the question give him the name of the inspector general who wrote the report. 

The death toll from the coronavirus in the U.S. is nearing 10,000 and experts believe the number of people dying from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, will continue to rise even as the number of new cases begins to stabilize in certain areas.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned Sunday in an interview with “Face the Nation” that the coming week is going to be “bad” and said that even as the mitigation measures put in place begin to work, the nation hasn’t yet reached the peak in the death toll.

How to watch the Coronavirus Task Force briefing

Fauci also rejected the idea that the U.S. has the coronavirus outbreak under control.

“That would be a false statement,” he said. “We are struggling to get it under control, and that’s the issue that’s at hand right now.”

Mr. Trump continued to push the use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine on Sunday, telling reporters it would be a “shame” if the drug is found to work and not used in U.S. hospitals. But earlier Sunday, Fauci told “Face the Nation” that “the data are really just at best suggestive.’

“In terms of science, I don’t think we could definitively say it works,” he said.