Donald Trump has continued to insists he is 'doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus' despite the number of cases in the United States rising to 57 and warnings it will spread from a top CDC doctor.
The president also noted 'the very early closing of our borders' which was 'opposed by the Dems' but 'was correct move' in a tweet posted Tuesday evening.
He wrote: 'CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus, including the very early closing of our borders to certain areas of the world. It was opposed by the Dems, 'too soon', but turned out to be the correct decision.'
Noting 'we have not had one death', Trump added: 'No matter how well we do, however, the........Democrats talking point is that we are doing badly.
'If the virus disappeared tomorrow, they would say we did a really poor, and even incompetent, job. Not fair, but it is what it is. So far, by the way, we have not had one death. Let's keep it that way!'
It comes as the US military reported its first case among its soldiers based in South Korea. A statement said the 23-year-old soldier was in self-quarantine at his off-base residence.
And San Francisco, where there have been no reported cases, declared a state of emergency 'as a necessary step to protect residents from harm'.
And Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials said on Tuesday it's no longer 'a question of if...but when' the coronavirus will spread in the US, as they told parents to prepare their children for the possibility of school closures.
The CDC said Americans may need to prepare for 'tele-schooling' should the virus continue to spread throughout the US.
So far, 57 cases have been confirmed - 14 in the nation, 40 from citizens repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan and three evacuated from China.
And although the threat is currently low, Dr Nancy Messonier, CDC's director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, says the public needs to be ready if the virus becomes a pandemic.
Trump had earlier insisted the United States is in 'very good shape' in regards to the coronavirus, as the White House on Monday sent lawmakers an urgent $2.5 billion plan to address the deadly worldwide outbreak.
'We think we're in very good shape in the United States,' the president said at a business roundtable meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Delhi. Trump is wrapping up a two-day state visit to India.
Trump, speaking to American and Indian business leaders, joked that their investments in the US have made them a lot of money 'except for yesterday,' noting the market drop.
The Dow plunged 1,000 points on Monday, posting its worse day in two years, amid fears of a spike in cases of the coronavirus.
'I think it's going to be under control,' the president said of the outbreak and lamented the market drop as being out of his or anyone else's control.
Despite the fact that cases have more than tripled in 10 days, President Trump tweeted with full confidence that the 'Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA'.
He also reassured Americans via the social media platform that the stock market is 'starting to look very good to me,' despite the Dow's 1,000 point plummet, for which coronavirus fears have been widely blamed.
Trump's administration is asking Congress for $2.5 billion to fight the fast-spreading coronavirus, including more than $1 billion for vaccines, the White House said earlier on Monday.
The White House budget office said the funds are for vaccines, treatment and protective equipment. But the request was immediately slammed by Democrats as insufficient with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling it 'completely inadequate' to the scale of the emergency.
The news came as coronavirus cases and deaths seem to have plateaued in China, but the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that, while it hesitates to use the word 'pandemic,' the outbreak is teetering on the precipice of that distinction.
The virus' toll continued to mount, even as Chinese officials reported a slowing in the number of new cases. As of Tuesday, the spread of the illness had sickened some 80,000 people worldwide and caused about 2,700 deaths.
The vast majority of those infections remain in China, where 518 new cases were reported Tuesday and another 71 deaths, 68 of them in the central city of Wuhan, where the epidemic was first detected in December. The updates bring mainland China's totals to 77,780 cases and 2,666 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus' spread fueled apprehension in world financial markets. In the U.S., stock indexes piled on a second consecutive day of losses, falling more than 3 percent. Investor fears that the outbreak will slow the world economy drove increased demand for low-risk U.S. government bonds.
'It's the combination of South Korea, Japan, Italy and even Iran' reporting virus cases, said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at BMO Wealth Management. 'That really woke up the market, that these four places in different places around the globe can go from low concern to high concern in a matter of days and that we could potentially wake up a week from now and it could be five to 10 additional places.'
White House budget office spokeswoman Rachel Semmel said: 'Today, the Administration is transmitting to Congress a $2.5 billion supplemental funding plan to accelerate vaccine development, support preparedness and response activities and to procure much needed equipment and supplies.
'We are also freeing up existing resources and allowing for greater flexibilities for response activities.'
After a controversial decision to repatriate 14 American cruise passengers whose test results came back positive as they were boarding evacuation flights from Japan to the US, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials warned that the it is 'very likely' coronavirus will start to spread in US communities.
Health officials warned the State Department not to fly 14 American cruise passengers from the Diamond Princess who tested positive in Japan back to the US alongside healthy passengers, for fear the virus would spread.
The State Department batted aside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) staunch warnings and flew all 328 evacuees back together on two planes.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
