According to official data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the US remains among countries only mildly affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. The US currently reports having 59 citizens infected by the new disease and, so far, zero deaths.
Despite criticism from Democrats, the Trump administration made significant moves to keep the pandemic at bay – domestically and abroad. Here are key moves made by the White House in this direction.
- The US has launched the first clinical trial of an experimental treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus, an antiviral remdesivir developed by US biotech firm Gilead Sciences.
- POTUS Donald Trump has requested $2.5 billion to support various programmes directed at fighting the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
- Trump appointed one of his closest allies, Vice President Mike Pence, to oversee efforts on combating the spread of the deadly infection.
- The White House issued a 5-priority request to Congress to expand government surveillance, develop therapeutics and vaccines, and manufacture gowns and masks, as a means of protection against the coronavirus.
- The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has begun to offer special testing kits designed to detect the coronavirus infection in patients with relevant symptoms, both domestically and abroad.
- The Trump administration announced that it will send $100 million in aid to the pandemic's hotbed in China, as well as to other affected countries.