Trump signs $8.3B bill to fight coronavirus outbreak
Funding will accelerate development of vaccine, assist with response efforts, says White House deputy press secretary
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an $8.3 billion emergency funding bill Friday to fight the coronavirus outbreak, as the number of infections with the virus globally topped 100,000.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere announced that Trump signed the Coronavirus Supplemental funding bill before departing the White House for the U.S. state of Tennessee.
"The funding, which the president requested, will accelerate development of a vaccine and assist with response efforts," Deere said on Twitter.
Trump's visit to Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which was initially canceled due to a suspected case, was rescheduled for 4 p.m. local time (0900 GMT).
According to The Hill news website, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham shared the information with reporters aboard Air Force One.
Grisham said that officials canceled the trip "out of an abundance of caution" because the White House believed the test results would not be available in time.
She said after the person tested negative.
Trump's CDC visit will take place after he completed his visit to tornado-hit Tennessee.
"We may go. They thought there was a problem with CDC with somebody who had the virus," Trump told reporters while signing the bill earlier Friday about his CDC visit.
The president confirmed that the individual has "tested negative" for the virus and added: "So I may be going. We’re going to see if they can turn it around."
The death toll from the epidemic reached at least 14 in the U.S., according to the CDC and state health officials.
The Senate passed the bill Thursday a day after it was approved by the House of Representatives. It aims to help local and federal authorities combat the deadly outbreak.
First detected in Wuhan, China in December, the disease, also known as COVID-19 now is present in over 87 countries worldwide.
The global death toll has crossed 3,300, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Notably, some 52,000 patients who contracted the virus recovered.
The WHO, which declared the outbreak an international health emergency, recently updated the global risk level to very high.
