Trump news: President declares national emergency over coronavirus and calls on hospitals to activate emergency plans
Follow the latest updates
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has declared a national emergency while under intense pressure from Democrats and health officials over his administration's handling of the global coronavirus pandemic, as his approval ratings fall and the stock market has plunged throughout the week.
Flanked by business executives and top health officials in his administration, the market saw an uptick as the president outlined plans for a federal response to the outbreak.
House Democrats also announced they had reached a deal with the administration to provide free testing to patients, including uninsured people, as well as paid sick leave, which Democrats and presidential candidates have urged the White House consider as workers brace for impact.
The global death toll surpassed 5,000 on Friday, with new confirmed cases of Covid-19 surging in the US and throughout Europe.
Louisiana announced it was delaying its state primaries due to the pandemic, as countless campaign events were cancelled and candidate like Bernie Sanders said their bids for the presidency had been “radically changed” due to the outbreak.
Meanwhile, South Carolina GOP senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham has announced he is going into self-quarantine after coming into contact with a Brazilian official who has since tested positive for Covid-19 at Trump’s Florida resort Mar-a-Lago. On Friday, a second person who stayed at the president's Florida estate has been confirmed to have the virus.
The president himself continues to insist he is “not concerned”.
The FDA is also providing an emergency approval for a new coronavirus test that promises to increase the speed and rate of testing tenfold across the country.
Follow live coverage as it happened
Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Fox News limiting staff amid coronavirus crisis
How's the president's favourite broadcaster coping with all of this?
They're running on a skeleton staff at their New York headquarters for one thing, reports The Hill.
"First and foremost, we are reducing the staff footprint at our headquarters in New York and some of our bureaus and will be instituting telecommuting starting Monday, March 16th for all of those departments capable of doing so," reads a joint memo from CEO Suzanne Scott and president and executive editor Jay Wallace.
"We have been preparing for this over the last week by implementing test days for multiple departments and have found various measures that work well" including telecommuting, it adds.
The memo also says "extensive sanitizing procedures" are underway and were put into place "more than two weeks ago which include continuous cleaning and disinfecting" throughout company facilities, "especially all shared spaces and common areas where we have instituted commercial-grade treatments."
On air, it's all pretty much business as usual:
Trump to declare national emergency over coronavirus
The Independent's Alex Woodward has more on what to expect from the president's upcoming statement at 3:00pm EST:
Breaking news: Louisiana postpones its primary
Here's more on what the postponement could mean for the Democratic race as coronavirus continues to spread across the US:
Presidents golf courses remain open amid coronavirus national emergency
Looks like the president's private businesses are staying open during the coronavirus outbreak:
FDA approves speedy new coronavirus test
Thomas Schinecker, who leads the company’s diagnostics unit, told the news outlet in an interview: “We are increasing the speed definitely by a factor of 10.”
“We definitely extended the capacity of the testing significantly throughout the US”, he added.
The company’s shares were 11 percent above their normal rates after news of the FDA’s decision to grant emergency approval for the tests was reported on Friday, according to Bloomberg News.
Biden appoints new campaign manager as Sanders expands operations in Pennsylvania
Joe Biden yesterday appointed himself a new campaign manager, swapping in Jen O'Malley Dillon for Greg Schultz. Dillion was previously steered Obama's ship towards re-election and has since worked for Beto O'Rourke.
The candidate has meanwhile gone from strength to strength in the Florida polls but, again, Bernie Sanders is clearly not giving up...
Here's Andrew Naughtie with the latest on the Sunshine State.
Me must prepare for the inevitable impact coronavirus will have on the US election
Lindsay Newman has more: "President Donald Trump is facing the first true crisis of his presidency. While many have long worried how well-prepared the Trump administration would be to manage a foreign policy emergency, it is not a confrontation with North Korea or Iran that presents the clearest danger to his presidency. Covid-19 is a black swan event in 2020, and depending on the outbreak’s trajectory over the next few months is likely to pose a big headache for Trump’s November re-election bid. And with the Louisiana Democratic presidential primary canceled just hours ago, this may mean a different kind of general election for everyone.
Unlike the trade conflict with China with its tit-for-tat escalations, or the moment just after the US killed Qassim Soleimani, Trump cannot sanction the coronavirus; he cannot tariff it, negotiate with it, or executive action it into oblivion. Sure, he can attempt to spin the narrative around it on a day-to-day basis, as we saw in his most recent Oval Office address, but ultimately the Trump administration will either effectively manage the health dimensions or it will not."
Bernie Sanders addresses how coronavirus has "radically changed" the campaign
Here's what the Vermont senator said just now at a campaign stop: "We don’t want to be delaying elections on willy nilly basis.Obviously there's a growing concern about bringing people together and spreading the virus. This is an issue where the doctors and scientists and public health officials are going to be weighing the risks. It has significantly impacted the campaign. We do more rallies than anyone else. They’re well attended. I love to do them. Dozens of town meetings, which I love also. And that is changing. Staff by and large working from home. It's radically changed our campaign. (I've) not been tested, thank God I don’t have symptoms. Have not to the best of my knowledge interacted with anyone."
President expected to declare national emergency any moment
Donald Trump is set to deliver an emergency statement at the White House shortly -
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments