Published 11:48 IST, March 5th 2020
Trump says US has 'most talented' people to fight coronavirus as cases rise
Trump said that the extraordinary success over the last three years has ensured that the United States is best prepared in the world to address any threat.
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Amid the steady rise in death toll due to coronavirus in the United States, President Donald Trump said that they have the most talented people in the world working together to address the epidemic. Speaking at the annual legislative summit of the Latino Coalition, Trump said that the extraordinary success over the last three years has ensured that the United States is best prepared in the world to address any threat or challenge.
“Nowhere is more true than our vigilant and unprecedented effort to right now to protect American for coronavirus,” said Trump.
'Most aggressive response'
Trump boasted that his administration leapt into action early on and undertook the “quickest and most aggressive” response to a foreign outbreak in modern history. He also talked about the "sweeping travel restrictions" imposed to start quarantines and said that the administration marshalled American industry and science to begin developing a vaccine.
The US Congress has voted for a $8.3 billion emergency funding package to contain the deadly virus. Earlier, the United Nations had announced the release of $15 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help fund the global efforts to contain the novel Coronavirus COVID-19. UN Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock announced the release of the fund after the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the alert to its top level of risk assessment - ‘very high’.
Early on, the deadly virus was confined to mainland China but more than 70 countries, apart from China, have now reported around 14,500 confirmed cases. According to the latest report, 31 new deaths in China due to coronavirus infections have been confirmed, taking the total death toll because of the deadly virus to over 3,000. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, other countries, including the United States, Iran, Italy, and Japan, have also now reported deaths related to COVID-19.
11:48 IST, March 5th 2020