唐纳德·特朗普总统在周三的新闻发布会上宣布，副总统迈克·彭斯将负责美国的冠状病毒应对工作。
彭斯将负责白宫冠状病毒特别工作组，并直接向特朗普报告。
该工作组将由疾病控制、健康和人类服务中心、国土安全部、交通部和国务院的成员组成。HHS部长阿历克斯·阿扎尔被任命为特别工作组主席。
“我将让副总统迈克·彭斯负责，”特朗普说，“他将和专业人士、医生以及其他所有工作的人一起工作。这个团队非常出色。”
周三，唐纳德·特朗普总统指派副总统迈克·彭斯领导美国应对冠状病毒传播。
特朗普说，美国全面大流行的威胁仍然很低，冠状病毒中心中国的情况似乎正在好转。
“如果你能指望来自中国的报道，”特朗普说，“那种价差已经下降了不少。在过去的两天里，感染似乎已经减少了。与变大相反，它实际上变小了。”
最近的数据表明中国报告了10例新的冠状病毒病例，共有2716人死于感染。中国总共报告了78，074例病例。
彭斯在评论特朗普时说，“这个国家的人民可以相信，在你的领导下，我们将继续与我们的州和地方伙伴协调，充分利用联邦资源。”
白宫拒绝提供新闻周刊对这个故事的评论。
特朗普解释了美国冠状病毒防备预算背后的思维过程，称白宫愿意“花任何适当的钱”
“我们从观察某些事物开始，”特朗普说。“我们一直非常小心、非常坚定地与希尔合作，我认为我们在资金方面有很好的两党精神。我们要求的是25亿美元，我们认为这是一大笔钱。”
“但民主党人和我想参议员[·查克]舒默希望我们拥有更多，通常在生活中，我会说‘我们会接受，我们会接受’如果他们想给予更多，我们会做得更多。我们会花任何合适的钱。希望我们不用花那么多钱，我们真的认为我们已经做了很好的工作，把它降到最低。"
参议院少数党领袖舒默周三发布了一项提案，要求85亿美元的冠状病毒紧急基金。
舒默在一份声明中表示:“国会必须迅速采取行动，应对这场全球健康危机的威胁。”。“美国人需要知道，他们的政府准备在冠状病毒传播到我们的社区之前处理好这种情况。时间至关重要。”
TRUMP TAPS PENCE TO LEAD CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE, SAYS INFECTION SPREAD SEEMS TO HAVE 'GOTTEN SMALLER' IN CHINA
President Donald Trump announced that Vice President Mike Pence would be in charge of the United States coronavirus response at a news conference Wednesday.
Pence will be in charge of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and report directly to Trump.
The task force will be comprised of members of the Centers for Disease Control, Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation and the State Department. HHS Secretary Alex Azar has been tapped as the task force's chairman.
"I'm going to be putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge," Trump said, "and he's going to be working with the professionals, doctors and everybody else that is working. The team is brilliant."
Vice President Mike Pence was tasked by President Donald Trump on Wednesday to lead the U.S. response to the spread of coronavirus.
Trump said that the threat of a full pandemic in the U.S. is still low, the situation in coronavirus epicenter China seems to be getting better.
"If you can count on the reports coming out of China," Trump said, "that spread has gone down quite a bit. The infection seems to have gone down over the last two days. As opposed to getting larger, it's actually gotten smaller."
Recent data indicates 10 new cases of coronavirus reported in China, with a total of 2,716 deaths from the infection. In total, 78,074 cases have been reported in China.
Directing his remarks towards Trump, Pence said, "The people of this country can be confident that under your leadership, we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal in coordination with our state and local partners."
The White House declined to provide Newsweek a comment for this story.
Trump explained the thought process behind the budget for U.S. coronavirus preparedness, saying the White House was willing to spend "whatever's appropriate."
"We started out by looking at certain things," Trump said. "We've been working with the Hill very carefully, very strongly, and I think we have good bipartisan spirit for money. We were asking for $2.5 billion and we think that's a lot."
"But the Democrats and I guess Senator [Chuck] Schumer wants us to have much more than that and normally in life, I'd say 'We'll take it, we'll take it.' If they want to give more, we'll do more. We're going to spend whatever's appropriate. Hopefully, we're not going to have to spend so much we really think we've done a great job in keeping it down to a minimum."
Senate Minority Leader Schumer released a proposal Wednesday asking for $8.5 billion in coronavirus emergency funding.
"Congress must act swiftly to confront the threat of this global health crisis," Schumer said in a statement. "Americans need to know that their government is prepared to handle the situation before coronavirus spreads to our communities. Time is of the essence."
