U.S. sees largest one-day increase in coronavirus death toll since the outbreak began; San Francisco area asked to shelter at home

the onset of the outbreak. As of Monday evening, officials had reported 18 people dead, bringing the nationwide total to 85, according to a Washington Post tally.

President Trump in a Monday news conference recommended that states with evidence of community transmission of the virus should close schools, as well as bars, restaurants, gyms and other gathering spots.

“It isn’t an overreaction,” Anthony S. Fauci, a leading member of the president’s coronavirus task force, said of the recommendations released Monday.

About 4,450 coronavirus cases have been reported in the United States, though experts suspect the true number is much higher.

Here are some other significant developments:

• U.S. markets plunged, despite the Federal Reserve’s emergency interest rate cut to zero.
• President Trump told governors Monday that states should work on getting respirators and ventilators, and not wait for the federal government to provide them. The president’s comment was confirmed by multiple officials briefed on the call to governors.
• “When you look at the projections, there’s every chance that we could be Italy,” the U.S. surgeon general warned Monday. Widespread social distancing could help change that trajectory, he said.
• The director general of the World Health Organization warned at a news conference there has not been an “urgent enough escalation” in testing, isolation and contact tracing.
• France will begin a 15-day total lockdown, limiting the freedom of movement of citizens who are allowed to leave only to see doctors, buy food or walk to essential jobs.