Coronavirus live updates: US cases post steep rise, Spain’s death toll tops China’s

This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. All times below are in Eastern time. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks. 

• Global cases: More than 480,446
• Global deaths: At least 21,571
• US cases: At least 69,197
• US deaths: At least 1,046

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told Americans the central bank is working hard to support them during these unprecedented financial conditions. 

“The Federal Reserve is working hard to support you now, and our policies will be very important when the recovery does come, to make that recovery as strong as possible,” Powell said on NBC’s “Today.” 

“Really the message is this: This is a unique situation, its not like a typical downturn. We’ve asked people to step back from economic activity really to make an investment in our public health. They’re doing that for the public good and this bill that’s just passed is going to try to provide relief and stability to those people,” Powell added. —Maggie Fitzgerald

The Senate approved an unprecedented stimulus bill, estimated to cost $2 trillion, as Congress tries to lessen the pandemic’s human and economic toll. The chamber passed the legislation Wednesday night as workers face widespread layoffs, hospitals and states starve for resources and businesses small and large worry about their survival. The House aims to pass it by Friday. The bill is designed to offer relief to individuals, the health care system and even an entire corporate sector ravaged by the outbreak. Here’s what’s in it. —Jacob Pramuk

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Spain has risen by 8,578 in the last 24 hours, the country’s health ministry announced Thursday. That takes the total number of cases in Spain to 56,188.

The death toll in Spain rose to 4,089 on Thursday, up from 3,434 the previous day. Spain’s death toll has surpassed China’s, where the official number of fatalities stands at 3,291. —Holly Ellyatt

Iran has started an intercity travel ban, an Iranian official said in a televised news conference, Reuters reported. The ban comes a day after Iran’s government spokesman warned the country might face a surge of COVID-19 cases. Officials have been critical of Iranians who have ignored appeals to stay at home and cancel travel plans for the Persian New Year holidays that began on March 20. Iran has recorded 27,017 confirmed cases of the virus, and has reported just over 2,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. —Holly Ellyatt

British retail sales failed to grow at all in February, marking their weakest performance since 2013, official figures show. When compared with the same month a year earlier, retail sales in the U.K. for February 2020 remained flat; the lowest year-on-year growth rate since March 2013, the Office for National Statistics said. The lackluster data reflects poor sales even before most retailers were forced to close because of the lockdown due to the coronavirus. —Holly Ellyatt

The U.S. ambassador to London said China had put the world in danger by suppressing information about the coronavirus outbreak.

“First it tried to suppress the news,” Ambassador Woody Johnson wrote in an article for U.K. newspaper The Times. “Had China done the right things at the right time, more of its own population, and the rest of the world, might have been spared the most serious impact of this disease,” the ambassador said. —Holly Ellyatt