By Brooke Singman | Fox News
President Trump on Friday declared a national emergency over the coronavirus outbreak amid extensive disruptions to the economy and American life, announcing partnerships with major U.S. companies to fight the pandemic while saying he believes the crisis “will pass.”
“We have decisive new actions we’re taking in our very vigilant efforts to defeat the coronavirus,” Trump said during a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Friday. “We’ve been working very hard on this. We will overcome the threat of the virus.”
The president’s declaration of a national emergency means that he will enact the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, which allows the White House to mobilize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and direct federal aid to states hit by disasters and health crises.
“I am officially declaring a national emergency–two very big words,” Trump said. “The action I am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion of very important…and a large amount of money for states, territories and localities.”
Amid concerns over the availability of testing for coronavirus across the country, the president said his administration is working to “dramatically increase the availability of tests.” Trump also said that with federal emergency authorities, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new test of the virus, which would provide “half a million additional tests” that will be available “early next week.”
“We are announcing a new partnership with the private sector to vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the coronavirus,” Trump said. “We want people to take a test quickly if they need, but we don’t want people to take test if we feel they shouldn’t be doing it.”
During his speech, Trump was joined by the leaders of major corporations and businesses, including Target, Walgreens, Quest Diagnostics and CVS Health.
“Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of this virus and help Americans impacted by this,” he said. “Again, we don’t want everyone to take the test.”
He added: “This will pass…It’s going to pass through…and we’ll be all the stronger for it.”
The president also said the administration partnered with pharmacies and retailers to make drive-through tests available in “critical locations” identified by public health professionals.
“The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car,” Trump said, while thanking Google for creating a website to help implement the drive-through test taking technology.
Trump said Google was going to “very quickly” get the website “done, unlike websites in the past,” he said in a veiled and apparent swipe at the Obama administration’s roll-out of healthcare.gov. “Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now,” Trump said.
WHAT AN EMERGENCY DECLARATION MEANS
According to the latest FEMA report to Congress, which was transmitted Feb. 29, 2020, there is $42.6 billion in the Disaster Relief Fund, which can be tapped under a Stafford Act declaration.
National Emergency on Coronavirus: What that means.
A National Emergency has been declared on Coronavirus, what that means for Americans.
In addition to declaring an emergency under the Stafford Act, the president also declared an emergency under the National Emergencies Act, which allows the Department of Health and Human Services to waive certain guidelines related to Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP to address the coronavirus.
The president touted his announcement this week to temporarily halt travel from European nations in the first moments of his remarks from the Rose Garden Friday.
“As you know, Europe was just designated as the hot spot right now and we closed it,” Trump said, questioning whether it was a matter of “talent or through luck.”
“Call it whatever you want,” Trump said, noting any families returning from Europe “will be subject to extra screening or a period of isolation for 14 days.”
Meanwhile, the president annunced that he would ask hospitals across the nation to activate their “emergency preparedness plans,” and said his designation of a national emergency would allow HHS Secretary Alexander Azar to waive “provisions of applicable laws and regulations” to give medical professionals and hospitals the “flexibility” to care for all patients.
The president said that Azar will have the ability to enable “telehealth” for remote doctor visit and hospital check-ins, and the ability to waive hospital stay limits, as well as obtain additional office and hospital space.
“They can now do as they want and do what they have to do, they know what they have to do now, they don’t have any problem getting it done,” Trump said.
Every U.S. president since 1976 has declared at least one national emergency. Former President Obama declared an emergency in 2009 over the H1N1 influenza pandemic and former President George W. Bush declared two national emergencies in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.
The announcement comes after the World Health Organization designated coronavirus, or COVID-19, a global pandemic.
Following that designation, the president announced a temporary halt on air travel to the United States from Europe, excluding flights from the United Kingdom and those carrying cargo, in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
Leon Panetta urges President Trump to work with world leaders to develop a global coronavirus response
The U.S. can’t simply isolate itself from the coronavirus pandemic, says former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, former defense secretary and CIA director under President Obama.
In recent days, major sporting and other events were also called off or postponed, businesses across the country instituted telework policies, government buildings and schools shuttered and other disruptions rock the nation, amid efforts to curb the transmission of the virus.
It also comes amid conflicting reports over whether another person who came in contact with Trump in recent days—Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro—tested positive.
Fox News’ John Roberts, Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News.
