Coronavirus: Trump to make statement about virus tonight amid widespread criticism of his 'dangerous' response

As president spoke, US markets continued to drop

Donald Trump told reporters he will make a statement Wednesday night about the coronavirus outbreak amid another stock market collapse and ominous testimony from his top public health officials.

The president said his statement would probably come "at 8 o'clock".

In the ever-changing nature of the Trump White House, he soon tweeted the statement would occur at 9 p.m.

Mr Trump said his announcement would focus on "what I've decided to do" to "get rid" of the virus.

"We'll be starting some additional solutions," he said, adding his team has made some decisions on China and Asia, where the virus started.

"We'll be making various decisions," Mr Trump said, declining to offer specifics.

He declined to say whether he would declare a national emergency across the entire country. That would allow him to deploy FEMA and unlock more federal dollars to address the outbreak.

As Mr Trump spoke and listened to bank executives heap praise on his actions and tout their industry as strong, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to fall. It had lost 5.86 per cent of its value by 4:20 p.m.

The president predicted a "pent-up demand" in consumer spending once the outbreak is beat down as people spend after perhaps spending most of their time at home trying to avoid catching the virus.

When Mr Trump opened the "pool spray" to questions from reporters, a CNN journalist asked what he would say to those who have said his statement contradict what his own public health officials have said, he called it "fake news" and dismissed the group of reporters.