Trump told reporters that he called after the CDC informed him on Thursday afternoon that someone may have been infected with a coronavirus, but added that he could still visit the government agency behind the American response to the global epidemic.
“I would prefer to go … now that the test has turned out to be negative,” he told reporters at the White House. “They are trying to understand that I am leaving.”
The Secretary of Health and Social Services, Alex Azar, should always visit the CDC.
The president revealed the reason for the trip’s cancellation at a signing ceremony for the $ 8.3 billion additional spending package to combat the rapid spread of coronaviruses approved by Congress earlier this week.
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“We signed the $ 8.3 billion. I asked for two and a half and I received $ 8.3 and I will take it,” he told reporters.
The package, which was passed by the Senate on Thursday, will replace the White House’s original request for $ 2.5 billion, an amount widely criticized by lawmakers as being too little to fight the virus that continues to spread in the world and has so far killed at least 12 people in the US
Earlier on Friday, the White House said the president’s visit was canceled because he did not want to interfere with the center’s battle against the rapid spread of the coronavirus.
“The president no longer travels to Atlanta today. The CDC has been proactive and prepared from the very beginning and the president does not want to interfere with the CDC’s mission to protect the health and well-being of their people and the ‘agency,’ said White. House said in a statement.
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The United States has confirmed 233 cases of COVID-19, and new cases were reported on Thursday in Colorado, Maryland, Nevada and New Jersey. At least 12 Americans and more than 3,400 people worldwide have died from the virus. The global total of coronavirus cases reached more than 100,000 on Friday morning.
Trump’s schedule for Friday includes a stop in Tennessee to inspect the damage caused by the storms after tornadoes ravaged and killed 24 people this week. He will then travel to South Florida for a weekend in his estate from Mar-a-Lago to Palm Beach.