Trump appeared to downplay concerns about the impact in the United
States of the flu-like virus that has killed 350 people in China and
spread to more than two dozen countries, telling Fox television in
an interview, "We're gonna see what happens, but we did shut it
down, yes."
Concerns about the virus spurred the United States to declare a
public health emergency and bar entry to foreign nationals who have
recently visited China.
Under new restrictions https://www.dhs.gov/publication/notice-arrival-restrictions-applicable-flights-carrying-persons-who-have-recently
that went into effect at 5 p.m. ET Sunday, U.S. citizens who have
traveled in China within 14 days will be directed to one of eight
airports designated for screening, with three more to be added
Monday.
"We can't have thousands of people coming in who may have this
problem - the coronavirus," Trump told Fox during a short interview
broadcast on Sunday. He said U.S. officials had offered China
"tremendous help" in dealing with the epidemic.
Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, in a separate
interview, said China had been more open about the coronavirus than
it has been in previous crises but had not yet accepted U.S. offers
of assistance.
"So far the Chinese have been more transparent certainly than in
past crises and we appreciate that," O'Brien said in an interview
with CBS's "Face the Nation."
He said Beijing has still not responded to U.S. offers of help from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health
professionals.
"We've got tremendous expertise," he said. "This is a worldwide
concern. We want to help our Chinese colleagues if we can and we've
made the offer and we'll see if they accept the offer."
The Group of Seven leading industrialized democracies are seeking a
unified procedure to tackle the fast-spreading coronavirus, and will
hold a conference on the virus, German Health Minister Jens Spahn
said on Sunday, after speaking with U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar.
Azar's office had no immediate comment.
In addition to Germany and the United States, the G7 includes
France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Britain.
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CDC officials have not been invited into China, but are in
neighboring Kazakhstan to help guard against the spread of the
virus, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday during a
visit there.
"You’ve got a long border with China which is where this disease has
emanated from," Pompeo said in an interview with a Kazakh
journalist. "And we’ve got our people from the Center for Disease
Control right here on the ground, helping Kazakhstan deal with this
so that you don’t have an enormous outbreak."
The local health commission in China's Hubei province, the epicenter
of the epidemic, reported 56 new deaths on Sunday, bringing the
total to 350.
At least 171 cases have been reported in more than two dozen other
countries and regions, including the United States, Japan, Thailand,
Hong Kong and Britain.
A ninth case of the fast-spreading virus was confirmed in the United
States on Sunday, in Santa Clara, in the San Francisco Bay area,
health officials said. The Pentagon is providing housing for people
arriving from overseas who might need to be quarantined.
Americans who visited China's Hubei Province, epicenter of the
coronavirus epidemic, will be subject to a mandatory quarantine of
14 days - the incubation period of the virus - upon entering the
United States. Americans who traveled to other parts of mainland
China will undergo health screening and be asked to self-quarantine
for up to 14 days.
Foreigners who have traveled in China within 14 days of their
arrival will be denied entry.
Chad Wolf, U.S. Homeland Security acting secretary, said the overall
risk to the American public remains low.
The coronavirus is believed to have originated in a market that
traded illegally in wildlife in Hubei's provincial capital, Wuhan.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Andrea Shalal; additional reporting
by Ted Hesson and David Shepardson; editing by Tom Brown and Leslie
Adler)
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