Trump declares a federal state of emergency as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread throughout the United States
President Donald Trump declared a federal state of emergency as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the United States.
“I am officially declaring a national emergency,” Trump said. “Two very big words.”
It opens access to as much as $50 billion in federal assistance to state and local governments to contain the spread of the virus.
Deborah Birx, a scientist who is part of the White House task force on the pandemic, showed a flow chart to explain the approach to testing and help screen patients and direct them to testing sites.
The administration has established a new partnership with private industry to expand testing capabilities, the president said.
The CEOs of Target, Walmart, CEO and Quest Diagnostics also joined the President at the press conference to explain what they’re doing to address the need for testing and relevant coronavirus health care. The test providers Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, which are already conducting thousands of tests, expect to significantly increase capacity in the coming weeks.
There were more than 1,200 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as of Friday. The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is now at least 41.
