Vice President Mike Pence announced the new restrictions and warnings as President Donald Trump said 22 people in the U.S. have been stricken by the new coronavirus, of whom one has died and four are deemed “very ill,” and that additional cases are “likely.”
Trump provided an update on the virus from the White House press briefing room for the second time this week after the first reported U.S. death yesterday, of someone he described as having a high medical risk before contracting the virus. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there was “no evidence of link to travel” in the case of the person who died.
He encouraged Americans not to alter their daily routines, saying the country is “super prepared” for a wider outbreak, adding “there’s no reason to panic at all.” Trump spoke a day after he denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a “hoax” cooked up by his political enemies. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina he accused Democrats of “politicizing” the coronavirus threat and boasted about preventive steps he’s ordered in an attempt to keep the virus that originated in China from spreading across the United States. Those steps include barring entry by most foreign nationals who had recently visited China.