Trump declares national emergency over coronavirus

President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency over the coronavirus pandemic, and announced a set of specific measures aimed at stemming the effects of the outbreak.

Stock marked indices sharply rallied during Trump’s press conference , posting their largest single-day gain since October 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1,985 points higher, or 9.4%, at 23,185.62., the index’s biggest-ever point gain on a single day.

The emergency declaration will free up as much as $50 billion in financial resources to efforts by states and U.S. territories to assist Americans affected by the outbreak.

But Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned, “There will be many more cases” of coronavirus in coming weeks.

As of Friday, the number of positive tests for people in the United States with coronavirus had reached 2,006, according to NBC News. At least 42 people in the country have died after contracting the virus.

Trump announced the national emergency declaration at a news conference in the Rose Garden at the White House, where he was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the administration’s coronavirus task force.

Also with president were members of that task force and the CEOs of Target and Walmart, who met with Trump earlier in the day.

“To unleash the full power of the federal government … I am officially declaring a national emergency,” Trump said. “Two very big words.”

“The next eight weeks are critical,” the president said.

Officials announced a web questionnaire set up by Google that people can fill out to determine if they have symptoms or risk factors that warrant them getting a test for coronavirus.

If they should be tested, under the website’s criteria, they will be directed to “drive-thru” sites, so so that people can stay in their cars when they are screened for the virus, according to officials. Trump said Google has 1,700 engineers working on the effort now.

But Trump and his officials appear to have overstated the current state of the tool, which is being developed by Verily, the life sciences sister company to Google. Both are Alphabet companies.

Google’s communications team said in a statement, “We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing.”

“Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time,” the statement said.

Trump said he expected the U.S. to have 1.4 million coronavirus test kits available within a week, and a total of 5 million kits within the next month. He then said he doubted the country will “need anywhere near” 5 million kits.

 Trump was asked by a reporter if he took responsbility for what Fauci earlier in the week called “a failing,” in reference to the lag so far in testing Americans.

The president replied, “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”

“Because we were given a … set of circumstances, and we were given rules, regulations and specifications from a different time,” Trump said. “It wasn’t meant for this kind of an event with the kind of numbers that we’re talking about.”

Trump said he had ordered all states to set up emergency operation centers, and urged hospitals to engage emergency operation plans.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/13/trump-will-hold-a-press-conference-at-3-pm-et-to-discuss-coronavirus-response.html