2020年CRI 若不实施社交距离 美国可能有150万至220万人死于新冠肺炎（在线收听）

Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded efforts to curb the frequent occurrence of accidents and disasters.

The instruction was given i???n?? response to a forest fire in Sichuan Province.

Nineteen people died while battling the forest fire, which started on Monday afternoon.

The victims include 18 firefighters and a local forest farmworker who led the way for the firefighters. They were trapped in the fire due to a sudden change in the wind direction.

The president demanded a high degree of attention to the prominent risks of fires and floods at this season, noting that several provinces had recently reported forest fires or safety accidents.

He says that local governments should thoroughly screen the risks of fires, landslides and workplace hazards while coordinating epidemic control and work resumption.

President Xi Jinping has inspected wetland conservation and technology-based urban management in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

He visited the Xixi National Wetland Park and the City Brain, a smart city platform aiming to improve urban management.

Hangzhou's City Brain project was launched in 2016 to help the city make plans in areas including public security, transport and healthcare with the use of big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

With an area of around 12 square kilometers, the Xixi National Wetland Park is the first national wetland park in the country.

The Chinese government will roll out a set of fiscal and financial policies, including allocating more local government bond quota in advance.

Premier Li Keqiang says the funding will prioritize regions with key projects, low risks and the prospect of quickly boosting effective investment.

The Premier adds that stronger measures will be implemented to offer inclusive financial support to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The government also decides to boost auto consumption.

The subsidy and tax exemption for purchases of new energy vehicles, which were set to expire at the end of this year, will be extended by two years.

China will start to report the asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 on a daily basis from today.

Chang Jile is an official with the National Health Committee.

"Starting from April 1, we will include asymptomatic cases including the reporting, transformation and management in the daily report of epidemic and will respond to the public concern."

Chang says all asymptomatic individuals will be put under mandatory isolation for 14 days.

He says local authorities will strengthen the prevention and control of asymptomatic infections, including timely reporting, quick transferring and registration of close contacts.

Symptom-free individuals infected with COVID-19 may lead to further spreading of the disease, but the infectivity of asymptomatic cases is still unclear.

As of Tuesday, a total of 1,541 asymptomatic patients infected with COVID-19 have been put under medical observation, including 205 imported cases.

The White House is projecting that between 100,000 to 240,000 people in the U.S. will die from the coronavirus pandemic if social distancing measures continue to be followed.

The projections suggest that, if no social distancing measures had been put in place across the country, between 1.5 million to 2.2 million people would have died.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is Director of National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases:

"We don't accept that number, that that's what it's gonna be. We're going to be doing everything we can to get it even significantly below that. So, you know, I don't want it to be a mixed message. This is the thing that we need to anticipate. But that doesn't mean that that's what we're going to accept. We want to do much, much better than that."

Latest data from Johns Hopkins University shows total confirmed cases have reached over 186,000 in the country, with 3,810 deaths.

A coronavirus-propelled free fall battered Wall Street during the first three months.

The Dow has shed 23 percent for the year to date, its worst first-quarter performance on record and its worst quarterly loss since 1987.

The S&P 500 has declined about 20 percent of the period, marking the sharpest quarterly decline since the 2008 financial crisis for the broad-market index.

The Nasdaq has lost more than 14 percent for the quarter, which represents the worst quarterly decline since the last three months of 2018 for the benchmark.