President Donald Trump announced a national emergency over the Coronavirus outbreak, allocating around $50 billion from federal resources to combat the virus. He also hinted at the possibility of adding the United Kingdom to the list of 26 countries restricted from entering the US.
The move aims to relax healthcare regulations and expedite testing, which has been widely criticized for its sluggish pace.
The US currently has 1,701 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths. Trump’s declaration enables the federal government to access emergency relief funds of up to $50 billion and ease healthcare regulations to expedite nationwide virus testing.
“We may have to include them in the list of countries that we will, you could say, ban or whatever it is, during this period of time,” Trump said when asked about the exclusion of the UK from the list.
“The numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours. We may be adding (the UK), and we may be adding a couple of others, and we may frankly start thinking about taking some off,” Trump added.
Standing alongside Vice-president Mike Pence and members of the US Coronavirus response team at the Rose Garden, Trump stated that the emergency orders issued would also grant “broad new authorities” to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to handle the virus.
Azar will have the ability to “waive provisions of applicable laws and regulations to give doctors, hospitals — all hospitals — and health care providers maximum flexibility to respond to the virus,” he revealed.
Additionally, Trump claimed that the private sector would supply 5 million coronavirus tests within a month. He emphasized that unnecessary testing should be avoided, stating, “We don’t want people to take a test if we feel that they shouldn’t be doing it. And we don’t want everybody running out and taking — only if you have certain symptoms.”
“We don’t want everybody taking this test. It’s totally unnecessary,” he insisted.
Furthermore, Trump stressed that although the threat of coronavirus to young, healthy Americans “remains very low,” the virus can be carried by anyone and pose a risk, especially to older Americans and those with underlying health conditions.
“We must take all precautions and be responsible for the actions that we take,” Trump concluded.