Watch live: Coronavirus Task Force gives update on COVID-19 response

Members of the Coronavirus Task Force, charged with leading the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, are holding a briefing Saturday afternoon. President Trump announced in a task force briefing Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending that Americans wear cloth face coverings in public. 

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“This will probably be the toughest week between this week and next week, and a lot of death, unfortunately,” Mr. Trump said at the top of the briefing. He then pivoted to slamming the media, calling media outlets “fake news.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also announced the Trump administration is finding a way to use some of the $100 billion provided to hospitals through the CARES Act to cover uninsured patients, reimbursing care providers at Medicare rates. The details, Azar said, are being worked out now. 

At least 7,159 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus and more than 278,000 people in the country have been infected, according to Johns Hopkins University. Globally, more than 1.1 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, and over 60,000 people have died. 

The government released its monthly jobs report for March, which showed 701,000 lost jobs, showing the economy ground to a halt last month as a result of the pandemic.

The Department of Labor announced Thursday that a record 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment claims in the week ending March 28, an increase of more than 3 million claims from the previous week.