President Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus pandemic today as public life in America continued to grind to a halt.
At a a hastily-organized press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Trump attempted to make amends for his missteps in his national address Wednesday night, when he misspoke about his own travel ban policy – requiring a correction – and leaving the nation uneasy about the steps his administration was taking to combat the disease.
Cases in the U.S. have climbed to more than 2,000, even with sparse testing, and the death toll has risen to more than 40.
The United States is facing the prospect that those numbers could grow exponentially, as they did in China, Italy, South Korea and other countries.
“I am officially declaring a national emergency, two very big words,” he said.
“I’m urging every state to set up emergency operations centers effective immediately,” he added.
Trump released $50 billion in funding, a move which will also make states able to rapidly put people on Medicaid if they seek treatment.
‘The action I am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion of very important and a large amount of money for states and territories, localities in our shared fight against this disease. In furtherance of the order, I’m asking every state to set up emergency operations centers immediately,’ he said.
But he repeated claims which have repeatedly come under fire that the federal response has been a success.
He also failed to address when adequate numbers of tests will finally arrive – and one of his advisers said Trump only ‘realized’ there was a problem on Tuesday.
And then he threw medical guidelines on testing into chaos saying that he would get one himself – but not because he stood beside a Brazilian Mar-a-Lago guest who tested positive but ‘because I think I will do it.’
In the course of a free-wheeling performance in which he invited CEOs from retailing, pharmaceutical and healthcare firms, Trump:
- Said the United Kingdom might be added to his travel ban because numbers there are soaring;
- Ordered hospitals to come up with emergency plans to deal with the expected onslaught;
- Disclosed that the federal government had ordered more ‘respirators’;
- Waived federal student loan interest payments;
- Said he would replenish the nation’s strategic oil reserve because prices are low – a move which is effectively a massive giveaway to domestic oil producers;
- Boasted that his actions had led to ‘just 40 deaths’ – but warned the number will go up;
- Refused to take any responsibility for the testing fiasco – even as the top medical official on his coronavirus taskforce said the president had only ‘realized’ there was a problem on Tuesday;
- Denied he had any idea that his administration had dismantled a pandemic readiness unit inside the White House which was part of the National Security Council saying it was ‘people in his administration’ not him;
- Repeatedly shook hands with other people around him as he addressed a group of reporters squeezed close to each other, all in defiance of CDC guidelines.
Trump’s announcement sent the Dow soaring nearly 2,000 points.
Concerns about the coronavirus rippled across the globe, as schools closed to millions of students; more events were canceled, more landmarks shuttered; and the Group of Seven leaders planned a virtual crisis conference.
Here are some other significant developments:
- After facing heated, bipartisan criticism, the Trump administration announced a series of steps to boost the availability of tests and said it would partner with the private sector to set up drive-through testing sites.
- The World Health Organization warned that Europe “has now become the epicenter” of the pandemic.
- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said he tested positive for the virus after attending an event in Florida with a top Brazilian government aide who has also tested positive. A senior Australian official also tested positive just days after meeting with U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr in Washington.
- Scientists have found that the coronavirus can stay infectious for days on some surfaces. They also discovered that the coronavirus can be shed by people before they develop symptoms and can linger in the body for many weeks.
The Trump administration moved on Friday to drastically speed up coronavirus testing, rushing to catch up with surging demand for tests.
The government gave the Swiss health care giant Roche emergency permission to sell its three-and-a-half hour test to U.S. labs, and said it was awarding over a million dollars to two companies to accelerate development of one-hour tests.
Testing has lagged in the country, infuriating the public, local leaders and members of Congress.
Sick people across the country say they are being denied tests.
Administration officials have promised repeatedly that enormous numbers of tests would soon be available, only to have the reality fall far short.
“I don’t take responsibility at all,” President Trump said in response to a reporter’s question, “because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules regulations and specifications from a different time.”
While South Korea is testing 10,000 people a day, overall U.S. state and federal testing has yet to log even 15,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi highlighted the urgency today, while discussing an emergency spending package she said the House would pass later in the day, saying, “The three most important parts of this bill are testing, testing, testing.”