Trump declares national emergency over Coronavirus

United States President, Donald Trump, on Friday declared a national emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, announcing partnerships with major U.S. companies to fight the pandemic while saying he believes the crisis “will pass.”

“We have decisive new actions we’re taking in our very vigilant efforts to defeat the coronavirus,” Trump said during a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday. “We’ve been working very hard on this. We will overcome the threat of the virus.”

The president’s declaration of a national emergency means that he will enact the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, which allows the White House to mobilize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and direct federal aid to states hit by disasters and health crises.

“I am officially declaring a national emergency – two very big words,” Trump said. “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, territories and localities.”

Amid concerns over the availability of testing for coronavirus across the country, the president said his administration is working to “dramatically increase the availability of tests.”  Trump also said that with federal emergency authorities, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new test of the virus, which would provide “half a million additional tests” that will be available “early next week.”

“We are announcing a new partnership with the private sector to vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the coronavirus,” Trump said. “We want people to take a test quickly if they need, but we don’t want people to take test if we feel they shouldn’t be doing it.”

During his speech, Trump was joined by the leaders of major corporations and businesses, including Target, Walgreens, Quest Diagnostics and CVS Health.

“Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of this virus and help Americans impacted by this,” he said. “Again, we don’t want everyone to take the test.”

He added: “This will pass…It’s going to pass through…and we’ll be all the stronger for it.”

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The president also said the administration partnered with pharmacies and retailers to make drive-through tests available in “critical locations” identified by public health professionals.

“The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car,” Trump said, while thanking Google for creating a website to help implement the drive-through test taking technology.

The president touted his announcement this week to temporarily halt travel from European nations in the first moments of his remarks from the Rose Garden Friday.

“As you know, Europe was just designated as the hot spot right now and we closed it,” Trump said, questioning whether it was a matter of “talent or through luck.”

“Call it whatever you want,” Trump said, noting any families returning from Europe “will be subject to extra screening or a period of isolation for 14 days.”

Meanwhile, the president announced that he would ask hospitals across the nation to activate their “emergency preparedness plans,” and said his designation of a national emergency would allow HHS Secretary Alexander Azar to waive “provisions of applicable laws and regulations” to give medical professionals and hospitals the “flexibility” to care for all patients.

The president said that Azar will have the ability to enable “telehealth” for remote doctor visit and hospital check-ins, and the ability to waive hospital stay limits, as well as obtain additional office and hospital space.

“They can now do as they want and do what they have to do, they know what they have to do now, they don’t have any problem getting it done,” Trump said.