US President Donald Trump announced a national state of emergency on Friday, freeing up $50 billion in federal funds for the battle against the coronavirus pandemic as he vowed to “vastly” ramp up testing capacity.
Trump surprised reporters by reversing his insistence on not needing to be tested for coronavirus, or even going into self-quarantine, following his contact with numerous politicians who since took the precautionary measure. But media said he must be tested for the virus as he had met Brazilian President whose secretary was infected.
Last weekend, Trump hosted Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who said Friday he tested negative for the virus after it emerged that his press secretary had tested positive.
“To unleash the full power of the federal government, I’m officially declaring a national emergency,” Trump told a news conference on the White House lawn. “The next eight weeks are critical,” he said. “We can learn and we will turn a corner on this virus.”
Trump called on all US states to set up emergency operation centers and said the government was partnering with the private sector to “vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test” for the virus, amid criticism about a lack of test kits nationwide.
OMG!!! HAHAHAHA 😂😂
Trump declares a National Emergency “two very big words”. Then suddenly he can’t read, gets flustered, his voice changes. Pure panic!! pic.twitter.com/N4okPr38ay— Mystery Solvent (@MysterySolvent) March 13, 2020
“I’m also asking every hospital in this country to activate emergency preparedness plan to meet the needs of Americans everywhere,” Trump said.
“We’ll remove or eliminate every obstacle necessary to deliver our people the care that they need and that they’re entitled to. No resource will be spared, nothing whatsoever,” he added.
The national emergency would also confer broad new authority on the US health secretary to waive a series of regulations, including on telemedicine or allowing hospitals to bring additional staff on board.
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US authorities have come under fire for lagging behind in deploying test kits, which leading health experts have said allowed the virus to spread beyond the country’s ability to detect it.
The Trump administration announced earlier Friday it was providing almost $1.3 million in funding to two labs to develop tests that return results in about one hour — DiaSorin Molecular of California and QIAGEN of Maryland.
The US Food and Drug Administration has already given emergency approval to Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche for a new and much faster coronavirus test.
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As a result of the Roche approval, Trump said half a million additional tests were expected to be available “early next week,” with details on test locations to be announced Sunday night.
He said he hoped another 1.4 million tests could be available next week, and five million within a month.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk