A payroll tax holiday will require fresh legislation and the support of the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats.

“We are consulting with leaders in the House and the Senate with respect to this package and particularly the payroll tax holiday,” Kudlow said.

Asked about finer details of the plan, Kudlow said: “Let us put the proposal out in concrete details and flesh that out and we'll have much better answers.”

His comments followed Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill earlier on Tuesday to pitch his plan to the Republican caucus, which, according to reports, is not completely on board.

Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying Republicans’ reaction to the idea of waiving payroll taxes was “mixed.”

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“The payroll tax, as a general stimulus -- I’ve got to think about that,” Bloomberg quoted Graham as saying.

The across-the-board payroll tax cut is likely to face stiff resistance from Democrats, whose support is required for legislation to advance to the Republican-controlled Senate.

Over the weekend, top Democrats House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed a vastly different economic plan to deal with the outbreak’s fallout, saying stimulus measures must benefit primarily workers rather than big corporations.

“We are putting [the plan] together. It’s not like we just woke up and started thinking about this. Our committees of jurisdiction have been working on it and we have worked all weekend on it, and, we should have something,” Pelosi said.

“I don’t know that we can be ready this week, but we can introduce this week, we can introduce it and we may be ready this week, depending on [the Congressional Budget Office], depending on legal counsel and how quickly they can get something back to us.”

The Democrats’ plan set out over the weekend by Pelosi and Schumer includes a proposed expansion of food stamps and school lunches, enhanced unemployment insurance for those retrenched due to the virus outbreak, anti-price gorging measures as well as expanded paid sick leave.

Schumer on Tuesday slammed the Trump administration for being fixated over the economic impact of the coronavirus instead of focusing on a response to the outbreak itself.

“I would remind the White House that by far the best way to ensure economic security for the American people is to deal directly with the coronavirus itself,” Politico quoted Schumer as saying. “Again, getting a handle on the crisis and addressing the virus itself is by far the best way to respond to any negative effects on our economy.”

If there are differences over what economic measures to introduce, few dispute the need for some form of response.

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Michael Pearce, a senior economist at Capital Economics, said fiscal stimulus could prove significant in boosting investor confidence. Equity markets in the US and around the world have been pummelled in recent days, and saw the biggest one-day decline since 2008 on Monday. Trading on Tuesday was volatile though stocks were recovering some ground.

“Any fiscal stimulus is going to help lift the economy and decisive action from the federal government will help to shore up confidence in the financial markets too,” Pearce said, adding that Democrats and Republicans could still find common ground on some measures.

“As we saw in 2008/2009, in a crisis, lawmakers can work together to reach a significant fiscal package quickly. We suspect the same will be true this time around as well,” he said. Pearce said a two percent payroll tax cut could be worth US $1,200 a year for the average American household, or 0.7 per cent of GDP.

Apart from fiscal measures, “targeted measures” such as temporary tax breaks, bridging loans for firms, and full-scale bailouts in the airline and accommodation sectors likely to be the hardest hit by the outbreak may also be necessary to offset anaemic consumer demand in the coming months, he said.

Speaking before Kudlow on Tuesday, Vice-President Mike Pence said the administration’s proposed measures reflected how “hard-working blue collar Americans” were “important to the president's heart”.

“We want to make sure that hourly workers, hard-working blue collar Americans that may not have paid family leave today, that small and medium-sized businesses in America will be afforded the resources to provide paid leave so that no one would feel that they have to go to work,” Pence said.

His comments come amid the continuing spread of Covid-19 in the US and around the world, as official numbers from China – where the new coronavirus emerged – show the contagion waning there.

Total cases and deaths in the United States rose to 712 and 27, respectively, on Tuesday, up from 423 and 19 a day earlier.

Local officials are moving ahead with new containment strategies that will put some public facilities off limits.

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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the creation of a “containment area” in New Rochelle, a suburb northeast of Manhattan, to halt the spread of the virus. The zone surrounds a synagogue that health authorities suspect to be the centre of a cluster of cases. The measure will close schools, community centers and other facilities that host large gatherings for two weeks, within a one-mile radius of the synagogue.

The American Health Care Association issued new guidance on Tuesday “encouraging all people, including family members and loved ones, to not visit nursing homes and assisted living facilities”.

The group’s president, Mark Parkinson, said in a CNN interview that the fatality rate for those in such facilities is much higher than that seen in the broader population.

With infections rising fast, social distancing measures are also being put in place. In Washington, the American University joined the growing number of US colleges and universities moving all or some classes online.

The Los Angeles Times postponed its popular Festival of Books – one of the country’s largest literary festivals – to October. It was initially scheduled for April 18-19. Media reports said the Coachella Music Festival in April was likely to be postponed to October as well.

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders announced on Tuesday that they were cancelling their planned evening rallies in Cleveland, Ohio. The decision was made “in accordance with guidance from public officials and out of an abundance of caution”, a Biden campaign official said.

Elsewhere, the administration on Tuesday also moved to quell concerns that insured people who have Covid-19 symptoms may not get tested because of costs.

After talks with chief executives of insurance companies in the White House earlier on Tuesday, Pence said that all the companies agreed to “waive all co-pays for coronavirus testing and extend coverage for coronavirus treatment in all their benefit plans”.