US President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns regarding whether or not he may have contracted the new coronavirus on Tuesday, saying he felt great and didn't feel any reason to get tested.
"I don't think it's a big deal. I would do it. I don't feel any reason. I feel extremely good," Trump said, speaking to reporters in Washington.
"I guess it's not a big deal to get tested and it's something I would do, but again, I spoke to the White House doctor, terrific guy, talented guy, he said he sees no reason to do it. There's no symptoms, no anything," Trump added.
Coronavirus Will 'Go Away'
Trump called on Americans to remain calm in the current situation, promising that COVID-19 would "go away."
"Be calm. It's really working out. And a lot of good things are going to happen," Trump said.
The president also indicated that he'd been "briefed on every contingency you can possibly imagine" regarding COVID-19's possible spread, and said that the US was taking coronavirus "unbelievably seriously," with Vice President Mike Pence's task force said to be doing a "fantastic" job.
Rebutting media criticism on the US's slow testing response, Trump said he tought the US "has done a very good job on testing," changing up policies early on which he suggested were in place from the previous administration.
"The biggest thing that we did was stopping the inflow of people early on, and that was weeks ahead of schedule, weeks ahead of what other people would have done," Trump said.
CPAC COVID-19 Fears
Media fears that the president may have contracted COVID-19 at the Conservative Political Action Conference which both he and Vice President Pence spoke at late last month were voiced last week, after it emerged that one of the conference's participants had tested positive for coronavirus. Neither Trump nor Pence were believed to have come into direct contact with the individual, and the president has said that he was "not concerned at all" about it.
Trump lashed out at what he referred to as the "Fake News Media" over the weekend over criticisms of the federal government's response to coronavirus, including criticism of the Centers for Disease Control over the poor availability of testing kits and the lack of testing of persons who had not visited China or come into contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient. On Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration reported that fewer than 6,000 Americans had been tested for coronavirus in the past two months.
Washington lawmakers agreed on an $8 billion emergency funding package to deal with COVID-19 late last week, with the money including $3 billion toward a vaccine, $2.2 billion for public health measures and over $1 billion for overseas aid. Trump signed the funding bill into law on Friday.
As of Tuesday, Johns Hopkins estimates that the US has a total of 804 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 28 deaths and 8 total recoveries. Originating on the US West Coast, the virus has since spread to over 30 states.
Worldwide, total infections now stand at over 118,000, over 4,250 deaths, and 64,400 successful recoveries, with China, Italy, Iran, South Korea and France facing the highest numbers of cases.
