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Bhavan Jaipragas

US President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency to deal with the coronavirus contagion, a move that will allow US states to tap crucial federal funds to deal with surging infections.
“To unleash the full power of the federal government to this effort, today I am officially declaring a national emergency,” he said in a press conference at the White House Rose Garden.
The move grants state and other local authorities the power to access US$50 billion in funds, the president said.
He said he was also granting emergency powers to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to allow him to expedite approval of tele-health systems.


US stocks surged on Trump’s announcement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 – both of which had suffered their largest one-day declines in three decades a day before – closed up over 9 per cent on Friday.
During the nearly 90-minute press conference, Trump also announced plans for “drive-through” diagnostic testing and said up to 5 million test kits would be available nationwide in a month, addressing a key complaint about the US response to the pandemic so far.
Asked whether he accepted responsibility for the troubled roll-out of widespread testing in the United States, Trump said: “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”
Instead, he blamed “rules, regulations and specifications from a different time that wasn’t meant for this kind of event with the kind of numbers that we’re talking about”.
The president bristled when asked about his administration’s decision to dismantle a pandemics response office set up by former president Barack Obama’s administration after the 2014 Ebola outbreak – a move that critics now blame for the federal government’s struggle to contain the epidemic.
“I just think that’s a nasty question because … we have saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing [of borders],” he replied. “You say we did that but I don’t know anything about it.”

Trump said interest on student loans owed to federal agencies would be temporarily waived. The energy department would also take advantage of a recent dramatic drop in crude oil prices to fill strategic reserves “to the brim”, he said.
Trump said that his Wednesday decision to close US borders to 26 European countries was based on experts’ opinions.
The administration could be “adding a couple of [countries] and we may frankly start thinking about taking some off”, he said.
Donald Trump condemned for closing off US as pandemic fears spread
As infections rise steadily in Britain – which, along with Ireland, was not among the 26 banned European countries – Trump said “we may have to include them in the list of countries … during this period of time”.
More than 800 people in Britain now have Covid-19, and a slew of events this weekend, including football and rugby matches, have been cancelled.


Trump lauded the Stafford Act that granted him powers to declare a national emergency and said he had “memorised [the legislation] in so many different ways and forms”.
“It gives us the kind of power that we need to get rid of this virus and do it very quickly, and I hope we won’t need it very long. Whatever it takes, so I don’t know for how long,” he said, when asked how long the state of emergency would last.
Trump said he would get tested “fairly soon” after an aide of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who met the president last weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida was found to have contracted the disease.
US House speaker says vote is set on emergency coronavirus legislation
Only a few emergency declarations for public health threats have been made since the 1960s, and only two have targeted disease outbreaks. In 2000, then president Bill Clinton declared emergencies in New York and New Jersey in response to the West Nile Virus.
Public health experts speaking at a Council of Foreign Relations briefing in New York on Friday said the declaration would allow federal agencies to act faster with greater ease and give the Federal Emergency Management Agency authority to deploy people and funding more effectively.
“It is essentially a governmental device that unleashes different capacities,” said Tara O’Toole, executive vice-president of In-Q-Tel, a not-for-profit venture capital firm, and former undersecretary of science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security.
“Exactly how it will play out, I’m not sure,” she said.


The number of infections in the US rose past 1,700 on Friday with the death toll standing at 41. The latest figures are more than double the tally on Monday of 423 confirmed infections and 19 deaths reported by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Trump administration has faced criticism over its response to the crisis on a range of issues, including the president’s earlier efforts to play down the severity of the situation.
Meanwhile, early kinks in CDC-designed diagnostic test kits had delayed widespread testing across the US.
While the situation has now been rectified and some 4 million test kits are now available in the country, experts say that setback is a major reason that community transmission is rising at a rapid rate.


While South Korea is testing 10,000 people a day, the US government and American states combined are yet to log 15,000 tests in total, according to the CDC.
Across the country, meanwhile, social distancing measures have been implemented. A ban on gatherings of more than 500 people took effect in New York state on Friday. The California city of San Francisco and the states of Oregon and Washington are among the growing list of places where restrictions on mass gatherings have been put in place.
﻿Additional reporting by Mark Magnier


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Coronavirus pandemic

Donald Trump declares US national emergency to deal with coronavirus response

US stocks surged after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday. Photo: AFP

epa08292222 (FILE) - Handout picture provided by the Brazilian Presidency showing President Jair Bolsonaro (R), along with his Press Secretary, Fabio Wajngarten (2-L, partially obscured), during a meeting with US President Donald Trump (L), at the Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, USA, 07 March 2020. According to reports, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for the COVID19 virus. Bolsonaro was recently on a trip to USA, where he met US President Donald Trump. EPA-EFE/Alan Santos/Brazilian Presidency HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES *** Local Caption *** 55948876

Coronavirus: Donald Trump condemned for closing off US as pandemic fears spread

US President Donald Trump sparked a storm of confusion, concern and condemnation around the world with his address to the nation on the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Bloomberg

(200312) -- WASHINGTON D.C., March 12, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on March 10, 2020 shows a stop sign and a plane approaching to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday night the country will suspend all travel from European countries except Britain for 30 days in a bid to fight the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

US House speaker says vote is set on emergency coronavirus legislation

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Washington on Friday, announcing at the Capitol that the House would vote on emergency coronavirus legislation. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) elbow bumps Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at a Friends of Ireland luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

Stock rout sends eight Asian indexes into bear markets amid coronavirus crisis as China injects US$78 billion of liquidity

Traders working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange react as the rout in global stocks deepened on Thursday after investors showed a lack of faith in the US and European policy responses to the worsening spread of the coronavirus. Photo: Bloomberg

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The move will allow US states to tap crucial federal funds to deal with surging infections
The US president has been under increasing pressure to act, as governors and mayors nationwide step up actions to mitigate the spread



The move will allow US states to tap crucial federal funds to deal with surging infections. The US president has been under increasing pressure to act, as governors and mayors nationwide step up actions to mitigate the spread.
