Coronavirus Watch: Stimulus checks could arrive in 2 weeks

Many Americans can expect their one-time stimulus payments of up to $1,200 to show up in their bank accounts in about two weeks, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said yesterday. More on this below. 

It's Friday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network.

Here's the latest news, as of 2 p.m. ET:

• More than 258,000 people have tested positive for the virus in the U.S. and more than 6,600 have died. See a map of confirmed cases here.
• After New York's most deadly night due to the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he'll call in the National Guard to take unused ventilators and supplies to redistribute them to the places of greatest need.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci said he doesn't "understand why that’s not happening" when asked why all states haven't issued stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders restricting residents' movements.
• Just 20 patients are on board the USNS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship equipped with 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms, New York state and local officials say.
• The U.S. lost 701,000 jobs in March, breaking a remarkable string of uninterrupted payroll gains the past decade, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4%. Stay up-to-date on the markets by signing up for The Daily Money.
• Hundreds of passengers from two cruise ships have begun disembarking in Florida, the critically ill heading for local hospitals and the healthy passengers heading for the airport.
• The Navy fired the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt yesterday, four days after he pleaded for help as the coronavirus ravaged his crew.
• A Paste BN analysis found that one of the reasons the U.S. is facing such a shortage of ventilators, masks and other personal protective equipment is that American companies sold nearly $60 million worth of those products to China.

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Keep sending us your coronavirus questions through this form and we'll continue to answer them in our reader Q&A. Greg from Matthews, North Carolina, asks: How do I sign up for direct deposit of the stimulus check?

Americans who have provided the IRS with their bank account information through their 2018 and 2019 tax returns will receive the money as a direct deposit. Those who haven’t will receive a check in the mail, although experts warn the wait for physical checks could take longer than three weeks.

The IRS is also developing an online portal that would allow those for whom the IRS does not have direct deposit information to input their banking information. But that portal isn't active yet. If the IRS doesn't have your direct deposit info, you're not alone: The IRS does not have that info for about 90 million to 110 million Americans.

Amid a concern about a lack of web access, online payment services such as Venmo have been in discussions with Treasury officials about helping to distribute the checks to consumers.

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— Grace Hauck, Breaking News Reporter, @grace_hauck