Insurers expect the Trump administration to relaunch HealthCare.gov as soon as Friday, one day after the Labor Department reported a record-shattering 3.3 million unemployment claims in the past week. Health department officials declined to comment.

It could make for some awkward political optics for Trump to rely on Obamacare while he’s urging the Supreme Court to overturn the law. The justices have agreed to hear a challenge to the law brought by more than a dozen Republican-led states.

Trump earlier this week defended his continued support of the lawsuit that could result in 20 million Americans losing health insurance. He offered vague assurances that Republicans would support insurance protections for preexisting conditions, though the party's previous health proposals would weaken those provided in Obamacare.

"What we want to do is get rid of the bad health care and put in a great health care," Trump said.

Obamacare already allows special enrollment periods for certain life circumstances, including job loss or changes in household income. However, broadly reopening the insurance marketplaces would give more of the nation’s 28 million uninsured a chance to get coverage amid a health crisis.

The insurance marketplace in Washington state, the earliest hot spot for the nation’s coronavirus outbreak, was the first to reopen in response to the disease. As of Thursday, about 1,300 people have signed up and another 3,100 have begun the process, which marketplace spokesperson Michael Marchand described as unusually high level of activity for a special enrollment period. Marketplace officials are also gauging whether to remain open beyond April 8 as originally planned.

“As the pandemic issue becomes more prevalent and closer to home to people, we’re seeing more people who have been uninsured coming in and asking for a special enrollment, and we believe that kind of thinking may continue as we see more and more constraints being placed on businesses and our economy,” Marchand said.

Obamacare “navigators” who help people sign up for health insurance have reported similar interest. Mark Van Arnam, director of North Carolina's navigator program, said his program typically gets 15 to 20 requests for assistance each day outside of the regular enrollment period.