Trump Declares National Emergency

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

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President Trump declared a national emergency.  According to Trump’s emergency order, states and territories would have access to up to $50 billion in federal funds to combat the spreading coronavirus epidemic. “I am officially declaring a national emergency, two very big words… I’m urging every state to set up emergency operations centers effective immediately,” he said.

He also gave broad new authority to Alex Azar, Health and Human Services Secretary. Azar would now be able to waive provisions to give doctors and hospitals more flexibility to respond to the virus. Under the declaration, Azar can enable telehealth services and allow remote doctor visits and hospital check-ins. Trump said hospitals would now be able to “do as they want. They could do what they have to do.”

More testing kits

Trump described federal administration efforts to speed testing. He said that 1.4 million new testing kits for coronavirus would be available next week and that 5 million would be available within the next month. But he added “we don’t want everybody taking this test. It is totally unnecessary.” In addition, Trump announced that he was waiving interest on student loans.