Coronavirus Live Updates: Canada Threatens Olympics Boycott; Trump Authorizes National Guard

Trump authorizes National Guard as states plead for masks and ventilators.

After the governors of multiple states and other leaders made urgent pleas on Sunday for masks and other protective equipment to help fight the swelling outbreak, President Trump listed a number of federal actions in a news conference in the evening.

As the number of known cases in the United States crossed 31,700, California officials told hospitals to restrict coronavirus testing, and a hospital in Washington State warned that it could run out of life-preserving ventilators by early next month. ​Washington State’s Department of Health told local leaders that only the highest-priority areas would have access to the government’s reserves of protective equipment, including N95 masks.

Mr. Trump said that major disaster declarations were in process for New York, California and Washington — the three states hardest hit by the virus — and that they would not have to pay for deploying National Guard units.

“Through FEMA, the federal government will be funding 100 percent of the cost of deploying National Guard units to carry out approved missions to stop the virus, while those governors remain in command,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump placed National Guard units from California, New York and Washington under Title 32 authority. This means the troops from these states will still be under the control of their state’s governors but will be supporting a federal mission, much like the roughly 2,200 National Guard soldiers currently on the southern border.

Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel, the head of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters Sunday that the troops will support the Department of Health and Human Services with testing and at medical facilities, as well as provide unspecified support for FEMA.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” General Lengyel said. “It’s a historic event and it’s going to require a historic response.”

Mr. Trump also said during the Sunday conference that he had directed FEMA to supply four large federal medical stations with 1,000 beds for New York, eight large federal medical stations with 2,000 beds for California, and three large federal medical stations and four small federal medical stations with 1,000 beds for the State of Washington.

The stations for New York, to be built in Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, were announced earlier in the day by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

As Mr. Trump detailed federal activities, he at times repeated facts and appeared halting as he described a complex list of facts and figures in the millions.

Many state and local officials have pressed Mr. Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to mobilize industry to manufacture scarce goods. On Sunday, Peter T. Gaynor, the FEMA administrator, said the president was not doing so, and instead was using the threat of the act as “leverage to demonstrate that we can.”

At the news conference on Sunday, Mr. Trump defended his decision not to implement the Defense Production Act despite an outcry from state governors and Democrats.

“Call a person over in Venezuela,” Mr. Trump said. “Ask them, how did nationalization of their businesses work out? Not too well. The concept of nationalizing our businesses is not a good concept.”

The president’s top trade adviser said that, in fact, the act had spurred the country’s “industrial base” to voluntarily mobilize, allowing for the quick conversion of corporate production facilities to produce medical supplies.

“We’re getting what we need without putting the heavy hand of government down,” Peter Navarro, the president’s top trade adviser, told reporters.

Senate Democrats on Sunday blocked action on an emerging deal to prop up an economy devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, paralyzing the progress of a nearly $2 trillion government rescue package they said failed to adequately protect workers or impose strict enough restrictions on bailed-out businesses.

The party-line vote was a stunning setback after three days of fast-paced negotiations between senators and administration officials to reach a bipartisan compromise on legislation that is expected to be the largest economic stimulus package in American history — now expected to cost $1.8 trillion or more. In a 47-to-47 vote, the Senate fell short of the 60 votes that would have been needed to advance the measure, even as talks continued behind the scenes between Democrats and the White House to salvage a compromise.

The failure to move forward shook financial markets and threatened an ambitious timeline set by the Trump administration and leading Republicans to move the rescue package through the Senate on Monday and enact it within days.

In voting to block action, Democrats risked a political backlash if they are seen as obstructing progress on a measure that is widely regarded as crucial to aid desperate Americans and buttress a flagging economy.

“This is irresponsible and unwise,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. “They are playing with fire.”

The move enraged Republicans, whose numbers were dwindling after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, announced on Sunday that he had contracted the coronavirus and prompted two senators to self-isolate and miss the vote that evening. The maneuver by Democrats, they argued, contravened days of bipartisan negotiations that continued in private and jeopardized faith that Congress was capable of mustering a legislative salve for a shuddering economy.

The mood in the Capitol was grim as the vote unfolded, in an eerie echo of the spectacle in 2008 when the House initially defeated a $700 billion Wall Street bailout that aimed to stabilize the financial system amid a global meltdown, sending the Dow Jones industrials plunging. Sunday evening’s vote was a procedural one, but it shook markets all the same. Dow futures fell 5 percent, inciting a “limit down,” meaning they could not fall any further.

Senators and aides said they still hoped to reach a compromise on the legislation, with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, declaring after the vote that “we’re closer than we’ve been at any time over the past 48 hours to an agreement.”

Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic Committees said on Sunday night that the country will not send teams to the Tokyo Games unless they are postponed by a year.

“While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community,” the groups said in a joint statement. “This is not solely about athlete health — it is about public health.”

The committees said that going ahead with the Olympics as planned in July contradicts advice from public health officials and that training for that schedule threatens the health of athletes.

The decision in Canada was reached after the International Olympic Committee said earlier in the day that it will come to a decision about the timing of the games within four weeks.

The Australian Olympic Committee said on Sunday that its athletes should “prepare for a Tokyo Olympic Games in the northern summer of 2021.” It added that its board has concluded that “an Australian Team could not be assembled in the changing circumstances at home and abroad.”

Several Canadian athletes have been at the forefront of calls for the I.O.C. to postpone or cancel the 2020 games. Hayley Wickenheiser, a six-time Olympian and a member of the I.O.C. Athletes’ Commission, wrote on Twitter last week that “the IOC insisting this will move ahead with such conviction is insensitive and irresponsible given the state of humanity.”

A sharp increase in confirmed coronavirus cases in New York State on Sunday indicated that the state now accounts for roughly 5 percent of coronavirus cases worldwide.

The jump stemmed from both the rapid growth of the outbreak and a significant increase in testing in the state. Health officials emphasized that testing was revealing how quickly the virus had spread.

There are now 15,168 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the state, up 4,812 since Saturday, and 114 deaths, Mr. Cuomo said. About 13 percent, or 1,974 people in New York who tested positive for the virus, were hospitalized, he said.

The governor took issue with what he called the “insensitive” and “arrogant” behavior of New York City residents who continued to gather in parks and other public spaces. Mr. Cuomo indicated that he would give the city 24 hours to come up with a plan to reduce density in these spaces, which he would need to approve.

“I don’t know what I’m saying that people don’t get,” Mr. Cuomo said, suggesting that city officials could close some streets to traffic to give residents more outdoor space.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York warned that the city’s hospitals were straining under a deluge of cases, and he again called on Mr. Trump to send more help.

“April is going to be worse than March,” he said. “And I fear May will be worse than April.”

Reporting and research by Ian Austen, Mariel Padilla, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Katie Van Syckle, Jesse McKinley, Emily Cochrane, Jim Tankersley and Jeanna Smialek