Published 16:31 IST, March 21st 2020
Donald Trump on COVID-19: From saying 'it's under control' to declaring national emergency
Donald Trump has gone from saying “it is under control” to declaring the coronavirus outbreak as a “national emergency”. Here are all statements made by him.
As the deadly coronavirus outbreak continues to tighten its grip around the world, the people have either criticised their country’s leaders for an effective response to the pandemic or criticised the same. Since COVID-19 was first discovered in China in late December 2019, United States President Donald Trump has gone from saying “it is under control” to declaring the outbreak as a “national emergency”. Here are all the statements he made along with the number of coronavirus infections US had reported at the time. As of March 20, there are more than 19,600 confirmed cases of the fatal virus in the United States with at least 264 deaths.
January 22: ‘Under control’
Trump had declared ‘national emergency’ in March and has now stated that he would put the wellbeing of US citizens as the top priority, but on January 22 when reported infection of COVID-19 was just one, the US President had lauded that the outbreak was “under control”.
Trump said, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
February 2: ‘Shut it down’
What was reportedly the 17th day of coronavirus reaching the United States, a country with at least 330 million population, Trump said on February 2 that the authorities will be halting the travel with China, where the virus cases were soaring at that time. The US officials ordered mandatory quarantine for those returning or having a travel history to the mainland and the flights were also suspended to and from China. Till then, the number of COVID-19 infections had already reached 11.
The US President said, “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China”.
February 24: ‘Stock market looking good’
As of February 24, when the virus infections had reached 53, Trump had again touted optimism and lauded the fact that his administration along with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have the outbreak “very much under control” and also said that “the stock market is looking good”. According to reports, hours after the US President made the statement, the White Houe requested $1.25 billion in additional emergency funding.
Trump said, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me”.
February 25: ‘Administration doing great’
Repeating his praises for his own leadership along with his administration, Trump said that they are doing a “great job” along with the CDC. On day 40, when the virus had infected 57 people, the US President had claimed that the “problem’s going to go away”. Moreover, Trump claimed that the US doctors were closer to getting a vaccine of the diseases caused by the pathogen.
He said, “CDC & my administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus” and “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away. They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: ‘Going substantially down’
It was on day 41 when the COVID-19 confirmed cases in the US were 60, Trump claimed that within a few days the cases will become zero as they were “going substantially down”.
Trump said, “We’re going very substantially down, not up” and “The 15 [cases] within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero”
February 27: ‘Like a miracle’
The US President said that the outbreak will eventually go away “like a miracle” but added that it could get worse before it entirely disappears.
He said, “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear”
February 28: ‘Ordering a lot of supplies’
Towards the end of February, the COVID-19 cases had reached 64, and in a briefing at the White House, Trump assured that the government is “ordering a lot of supplies”. It was around that time when major US-based companies had ordered its employees to practice social distancing and conferences were being cancelled.
The US President said, “We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical”
March 2: ‘Take solid flu vaccine’
As March started, the infections crossed 100 infections and Donald trump said a flu vaccine can be used to treat coronavirus infection.
He said, “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?” and “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 9: ‘Blindsided’
It was only when in a short span of time, when the infection count reached 700 by March 9 did Donald Trump admitted that the outbreak had “blindsided the world”.
He said, “This blindsided the world”.
March 13: ‘National emergency’
On day 57, as the reported infections crossed 2,000 did the US President declared the coronavirus outbreak as a “national emergency”.
Donald Trump said, “I am officially declaring a national emergency"
Updated 16:21 IST, March 21st 2020