US is ramping up efforts to guard from coronavirus, considers new law

President Donald Trump’s administration is considering invoking special powers to rapidly expand domestic production of protective masks and clothing to help combat the coronavirus in the United States, two US officials told Reuters.

The move would be part of ramped-up efforts by US officials to guard against the virus’s spread in the US, where the number of confirmed cases is still relatively small at 60, most of them repatriated American passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan.

During an interagency call on Wednesday, officials from Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) discussed the possibility of invoking the Defense Production Act for the manufacture of “personal protective equipment” that can be worn to prevent infection, according to a DHS official.

On Thursday, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told a House of Representatives committee that at least 40 public health labs should now be able to test specimens for coronavirus and that could more than double as soon as Friday.

He said a newly manufactured test from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can be sent to 93 public health labs as soon as Monday, and a privately manufactured test based on the new CDC test could be sent to those same labs as early as Friday.

Quick confirmation of coronavirus cases is crucial to rapid response by local health authorities, and states previously reported that some test kits provided by CDC were not effective.

Some state and local public health workers have expressed doubts about how quickly the country will be able to scale up its testing capability, however.

Scott Becker, the CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), said his group had worked with the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration to develop a way to quickly increase testing capacity but these tests will still have to be validated by states, which could take several days.

“If quality control goes well as expected by the end of next week, upwards of 40 labs will have testing capabilities in addition to the 12 we have,” Becker told Reuters.

Funding for the preparations has become a political issue in an election year. Trump, a Republican, is seeking $2.5 billion from Congress to boost the government’s response. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has called for $8.5 billion.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he expected the divided US Congress would make an urgent bipartisan effort to come up with legislation to fund the fight.

“I hope they can work expeditiously so the full Senate would be able to take up the legislation within the next two weeks,” said McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor.

China, where the coronavirus started, has borne the brunt of the outbreak, with nearly 80,000 cases and 2,746 deaths. It has spread to another 44 countries with 3,246 cases and 51 deaths reported.

Trump told Americans in a news conference on Wednesday that the risk from coronavirus remained “very low.”But with new infections reported around the world now surpassing those in mainland China, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said even rich nations should prepare for surprises.

“No country should assume it won’t get cases, that would be a fatal mistake, quite literally,” Tedros said, as governments from Iran to Australia raced to contain the epidemic’s global spread.

Various treatments are being tested for the virus, that can lead to pneumonia, but a vaccine may take up to 18 months to develop, health officials have said.

Wall Street’s main indexes tumbled for the sixth straight session on Thursday with the S&P 500 on track for its fastest correction in history as the global spread of coronavirus intensified investor uncertainty about the economic impact.

If the S&P closes 10 percent below its record close reached on February 19 this would be its fastest correction ever.

Trump, who is running for re-election in November, has been increasingly alarmed by the market reaction. On Wednesday he blamed Democrats competing to be their party’s nominee as well as two cable TV news channels, CNN and MSNBC, for spooking investors.

On Thursday, Democrats went on the offensive.

“I’m worried this administration is not prepared for the global outbreak,” Democratic US Representative Bill Pascrell told Azar, citing Trump’s tweets focused on the stock market. “I don’t see a plan to manage the risk.”

Schumer and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked for assurances that Trump would not transfer new funds to any other use apart from fighting infectious diseases.

“Any emergency funding supplemental the Congress approves must be entirely new funding - not stolen from other accounts,” they said in a statement.