US President Donald Trump appears to have changed his mind about the possibility of imposing a quarantine on New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

He wrote on Twitter: "On the recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force, and upon consultation with the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, I have asked the CDC to issue a strong travel advisory, to be administered by the governors, in consultation with the federal government. A quarantine will not be necessary."

It came just hours after he had told reporters: "Some people would like to see New York quarantined because it's a hot spot - New York, New Jersey, maybe one or two other places... certain parts of Connecticut quarantined. I'm thinking about that right now."

Trump was considering quarantine of New York

He went on: "We might not have to do it but there is a possibility that sometime today we'll do a quarantine, short term, two weeks for New York, probably New Jersey, certain parts of Connecticut."

The number of deaths in New York has risen from 519 to 728, with the number of cases now recorded at 52,318, most of them in New York City.


Mr Trump's words came shortly before it was confirmed that a child under the age of one had died in Chicago after contracting the virus.

Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr Ngozi Ezike said: "There has never before been a death associated with COVID-19 in an infant. A full investigation is underway to determine the cause of death.

"We must do everything we can to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. If not to protect ourselves, but to protect those around us."

Meanwhile, the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, said the price of ventilators in the US had almost doubled from $25,000 to $45,000 - driven up because each state is competing against the others to buy them.

US states bidding against each other for ventilators

Insisting the US has merely been reactive and failed to plan ahead, he said: "We have been behind this virus from day one."

Saying he is trying to stockpile medical supplies before the expected peak in a fortnight, he said: "You don't win on defence, you win on offence. You have to get ahead of this."

Mr Cuomo also insisted the pandemic was "not a sprint my friends, this is a marathon" but also said people should try and "find a silver lining in all of this".

"Who's painting their house because they never had time to paint their house before, who's working on a project that they never got to - who's reading a book that they never got to do, who's writing a book?"

He continued: "I've had conversations with my daughters, hours-long conversations where it's just us, just us talking, no place to go, she doesn't have to go to work, she doesn't have to run out, and they're priceless.

"You'll never get the opportunity in life to do that again. We're going to get through this and they're going to go off and find a boyfriend and do whatever they do.

"Yes, it's terrible and I'm not trying to say it's not a terrible circumstance, but even in a terrible circumstance, if you look hard enough, you can find a little ray, a few rays of light, and people are doing it and I think we all should.

"It's going to be a marathon, but we're going to get through it."

Meanwhile, non-coronavirus patients on the west coast of the US are set to be transferred onto a US navy hospital ship moored off Los Angeles to help the city's overburdened hospitals.

A look inside US hospital ship

A handful of patients will be taken to the USNS Mercy, one of the navy's two hospital ships, on Saturday as the Californian city struggles to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The captain of the ship, which has 1,100 hospital beds, said they would gradually take on more patients over time to free up space in hospitals for coronavirus patients.

Image: About two thirds of the Mercy's 1,000 sailors are medical staff

The Mercy's 1,000 sailors, of which two-thirds are medical staff, have spent the last week training at sea as it is the first time many of them have worked together.

California's 40 million residents were placed on lockdown on 19 March, with its governor estimating 56% of the state's population would be infected over eight weeks.

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It is the third hardest hit state in the country, after New York and New Jersey, with a total of 4,905 coronavirus cases confirmed and 102 deaths in California by Thursday evening.

Los Angeles has been the state's hardest hit city, with 1,482 confirmed cases and 26 deaths.

On Friday the US overtook China and Italy in the number of confirmed cases, which reached 104,860 on Saturday and 1,581 deaths.

Image: New York's normally busy Times Square was empty on Saturday morning

The country now has just over 17% of the world's 615,519 cases.

The US navy's other hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, is preparing to leave Virginia on Saturday to head to New York City which is the worst hit area of the US.