Washington: After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Novel Coronavirus as a pandemic, the United States initiated rapid steps to stop it. On Friday, US President Donald Trump said that a National Emergency was being imposed in the country, to prevent the spread of the new Coronavirus outbreak. Along with that, the Trump administration announced additional funding of $50 billion for the states in the US and local administrations to combat the Coronavirus.   

President Trump announced that ‘To unleash the full power of the federal government … I am officially declaring a national emergency- two very big words’. At this time, President Trump stated that the US secretary of Health and Human Services was being bestowed with emergency powers. The stock markets reflected a positive reaction to the announcement and the indices rose by nearly 9% in Friday trades. The US federal reserves had already announced an aid of $1.5 trillion to stop the historic slide in the stock markets.  

The pandemic has reached 50 US states with 2,299 cases and a death toll of more than 50. The experts and officials in the US Health Department are consistently warning that the number of patients and deaths in the US could rise exponentially. The top health official from the state of Ohio expressed fear that 100,000 people in Ohio had the new Coronavirus.  

Considering the developments, President Trump’s announcement assumes much significance. Before imposing the emergency, President Trump had also placed an entry ban on all passengers travelling from the European countries, starting from Friday night. All flights to and from Europe have been cancelled for one month. Aggressive repercussions of the announcement were felt in the European countries. President Trump, however, said he was firm on his decision as he also justified the earlier travel ban on China.  

President Trump advised the citizens not to panic while announcing the emergency and appealed that they should take any step, only after getting all the necessary information from the US Health Department’s website. Furthermore, he indicated that he was going to take the test for the Coronavirus in the next few days. Some lawmakers and officials, who had come in contact with President Trump, were detected with the virus. President Trump was thus asked to undergo tests for the COVID-19.   

President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, has reportedly taken the decision of remaining under self-isolation considering the Coronavirus outbreak.

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