White House plays down U.S. coronavirus concerns as stock market plunges
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Washington, March 9, 2020 (Reuters/NAN) The Trump administration on Monday downplayed the threat posed by the widening coronavirus outbreak, while U.S. stock markets plummeted after the open of trading on fears of a looming global recession.
According to state public health authorities and a running national tally kept by the Johns Hopkins University center tracking the outbreak, the number of confirmed U.S. cases of coronavirus was at 566, including 22 deaths.
About three-fourths of the 50 U.S. states have reported infections.
New York state coronavirus cases hits 142, governor says
“Right now we’re telling people to act as if this is a severe flu season,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in an interview with Fox News from West Palm Beach, where President Donald Trump spent the weekend at his Florida resort.
Grisham also said the Trump administration was working with California officials managing the cruise ship Grand Princess as they prepared to send 2,400 passengers to quarantine centres at four military bases across the country.
“We’re working hard to get that ship home,” she said.
The coronavirus originated in China in December and causes the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19.
The outbreak has killed 3,800 globally and rattled investors, who feared it could lead to a global recession.
Major U.S. stock indexes opened sharply lower in step with sell-offs in overseas markets.
Trading was halted as the S&P 500 .SPX index fell 7 per cent triggering an automatic 15-minute cut out put in place after the last financial crisis.
As the coronavirus spreads, daily life in U.S. has been increasingly disrupted, with concerts and conferences cancelled and universities telling students to stay home and take classes online.
To contain the outbreak in China, the government quarantined millions of people for weeks.
Italy has announced similar measures, locking down 16 million people in the north of the country. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Abiodun Oluleye/Emmanuel Yashim