US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has declared the coronavirus Covid-19 a national emergency. 

This evening, Trump announced that the US will “vastly increase” coronavirus testing capacity.

Trump announced $50 billion in federal funds support the fight against the coronaviru pandemic.

“To unleash the full power of the federal government, I’m officially declaring a national emergency,” Trump said in a statement today. 

“We will defeat this threat,” Trump said. “When America is tested America rises to the occasion.”

The president added: “This will pass.”

He called on all US states to set up emergency operation centers and said the government was accelerating testing, amid criticism about the lack of sufficient test kits nationwide.

Trump has struggled to show he is on top of the crisis after giving conflicting descriptions of what the US was doing to combat the virus. Classes, sports events, concerts and conferences have been cancelled across the nation, and the financial markets have been cratering.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, there are 1,663 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US. 

In one announcement earlier today, the administration said that it was awarding $1.3 million to two companies trying to develop rapid Covid-19 tests that could detect within an hour whether a person is positive for the new coronavirus.

This evening, Trump also said that the US would be buying “large quantities of crude oil” for strategic reserves and that student loan interest would be waived for the duration of the crisis. 

Trump said he was also giving US secretary of health and human services secretary Alex Azar emergency authorities to waive federal regulations and laws to give doctors and hospitals “flexibility” in treating patients.

Trump spoke as negotiations continue between the White House and Congress on an aid package, but there was no announcement of a breakthrough, as House Democrats prepare to vote on their own measure on Friday.

Testing

Trump also said that he would “likely” be tested soon for the novel coronavirus, although he stressed he is “displaying no symptoms”.

Trump was pressed repeatedly during a White House news conference on whether he should be tested after coming into contact with a Brazilian official now known to have Covid-19.

The president initially shut down the question, saying that per the advice of White House doctors, “I don’t have any of the symptoms”. 

“And we don’t want people without symptoms to go and do the test,” he told reporters.

But when grilled by reporters about his encounter with the official at his Florida resort, he changed tack, saying: “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to be tested” and that he “most likely” would be”fairly soon”.

“Not for that reason but because I think I will do it anyway,” Trump said.

With reporting from Press Association