An "unprecedented" effort. Criticized for minimizing the danger of the coronavirus and taking a long time to react, Donald Trump released the heavy artillery on Friday. The President has declared a state of emergency, a measure that will release $ 50 billion. Above all, he unveiled a partnership between the public authorities and the private sector in order to speed up screening, in particular thanks to the help of mobile laboratories and Google, which is working on a website allowing to coordinate the tests. Ads that seemed to convince Wall Street: after a dark day on Thursday, the Dow Jones rebounded 9%.
BREAKING: Pres. Trump: "To unleash the full power of the federal government ... I am officially declaring a national emergency" over coronavirus outbreak. https://t.co/7qcwjopHmq pic.twitter.com/AEJfZwbp1o
- ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 13, 202050 billion released through the state of emergency
By declaring a state of emergency, Donald Trump releases $ 50 billion through the agency Fema, which generally deals with natural disasters. It will also allow hospitals to activate their emergency plans. The head of the democrats Nancy Pelosi announced that an agreement had been reached to vote for an economic recovery plan in Congress. On the agenda: a reduction in employee contributions, a boost in unemployment and sick leave.
The private sector as a reinforcement on screening,
At this point, fewer than 20,000 Americans have been screened, due to a shortage of tests and a bottleneck at the CDC (the center for infectious diseases, which was the only one empowered at the start of the epidemic). ). Donald Trump unveiled a partnership with the private sector which should make it possible to move up a gear. The Roche laboratory is finalizing a rapid test which should receive express approval from the FDA (Food and Drug administration). The test, which is done via a buccal and nasal sample, is supposed to give a result in 4 hours.
Donald Trump has promised that "half a million" tests will be available next week, and "5 million within a month" - an optimism that has been tempered by his vice president Mike Pence. Mobile laboratories will be deployed in pharmacies at Walmart, Target, CVS and Walgreens. On the model popularized in South Korea, they will sometimes be accessible by car, as at the "drive-in" of fast food.
Google is preparing a triage website
According to Donald Trump, 1,000 Google engineers are developing a triage website. It will work as follows:
- Users will answer questions about their symptoms.
- The system will decide if a screening test is necessary.
- It will display the list of nearest test centers.
- The test results will be available on the site.
When will it be available? Mike Pence has to say more on Sunday. Google quickly clarified that the Verily project (a subsidiary of the parent company Alphabet) was at an "early" stage and that a test will first take place in the San Francisco area.
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