Donald Trump announces a raft of measures to address the coronavirus outbreak in the United States after it was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.

Updated
March 12, 2020 13:52:01
Donald Trump has announced his administration will suspend all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days in response to the worsening coronavirus situation.
It comes after WHO officially declared the virus a pandemic and Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled a $17.6 billion stimulus package to deal with the economic damage caused by the outbreak in Australia.
Until today, the US had yet to enact any large-scale containment measures despite cases topping more than 1,000 as testing became more available.
Here’s what we know about the new measures and how they compare with responses taken by other countries.
Firstly, what makes Trump’s announcement a big deal?
It is pretty rare for US presidents to make addresses like these and goes to show how seriously the country is taking the coronavirus situation.
In fact, this is only the second time Mr Trump has delivered an address to the nation from the Oval Office.
Outbreaks on both sides of the country however and the declaration of a pandemic by WHO might have weighed heavily on Mr Trump’s decision, particularly after it sparked chaos on Wall Street on Wednesday (local time).
What has been announced?
Mr Trump said he was “confident” that the US will be able to reduce the ongoing threat of the coronavirus.
His new measures included:

• Suspending all travel from Europe to the US (with UK exempt) for next 30 days, which will go into effect at midnight on Friday
• Emergency action to provide financial relief for workers who are ill, quarantined or caring for others due to coronavirus
• Instructing Treasury to defer tax payments without interest or penalties for certain businesses and individuals impacted by coronavirus
• Recommending nursing homes suspend all unnecessary visits

It is not yet clear what some of these measures might entail, particularly how the US Government will help workers who have contracted coronavirus or who are self-isolating.
What has Trump previously done about coronavirus?
Mr Trump signed a $US7.8 billion emergency coronavirus spending bill last Friday and this week, he announced he would be taking “major” steps to gird the economy against the impact of coronavirus.
Part of those measures included a payroll tax cut which he said he would discuss with congressional Republicans.
The hope is that a payroll tax cut could encourage consumer spending and help households which might otherwise struggle to make rent and mortgage payments on time or pay medical bills if family members’ work hours are reduced during a coronavirus outbreak.
Mr Trump had also put Vice-President Mike Pence in charge of the situation, who has given frequent press briefings on the issue.
But today’s address still marks a slight change from how Mr Trump has responded to the outbreak in the past.
Until this week, he had repeatedly played down the threat posed by the flu-like virus sweeping the globe, having tweeted that it is “very much under control in the US” and that he hoped “it will go away soon”.
Just yesterday it was also revealed he had not been tested for coronavirus despite a number of Republicans announcing they were going into self-quarantine after attending a conservative political conference where an attendee later tested positive to the virus.
But what has caused concern among experts is the number of claims he has made about coronavirus that have later been proved to be false, including a suggestion that it “dies with the hotter weather”.
CNN even began to tally these misleading statements, and found the President and his team have been inaccurate about coronavirus on at least 28 different occasions.
How does the travel ban compare to other countries?
Mr Trump said he had banned travel from Europe to the United States for 30 days to “keep new cases from entering our shores”.
The measures contrast somewhat with Italy, which has focussed more on preventing its citizens from travelling outside their home region. It has also banned mass gatherings.
But infectious disease specialist Dr Sanjaya Senanayake told News Breakfast that what has played a part in Italy’s response is that “it is the second oldest population in the world and older people are more vulnerable to severe cases of the virus”.
South Korea’s measures have been smaller scale, with the country instead opting to have “special care zones” around two cities hard hit by coronavirus. But the US has not taken this response yet.
Mr Trump’s measures are also less extreme than those taken in China, where the Chinese Government has forced more than 50 million citizens to self-isolate and threatened to punish those who break quarantine.
While the WHO has said the world should be grateful to China’s efforts to contain the outbreak in Wuhan, some have questioned what toll those extreme measures had on the broader economy and those caught in the crackdown.
Even within the US, before Mr Trump’s announcement many areas had declared a state of emergency and large gatherings were banned in New York, San Francisco and in Washington state. In this case, the response has mirrored what other countries have sought to do.
The CDC had also been advising colleges and universities to consider asking students studying abroad to return home and cancel or postpone upcoming travel.
ABC/wires
Topics:diseases-and-disorders,
health,
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government-and-politics,
world-politics,
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First posted
March 12, 2020 12:55:26