LOC09:12
06:12 GMT
WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (KUNA) -- US President Donald Trump announced late Wednesday that Vice President Mike Pence will be in charge of the coronavirus outbreak response.
"I'm going to be putting our Vice President Mike Pence in charge and Mike will be working with the professionals, doctors and everybody else that is working," Trump said during a press conference.
He reiterated "the risk to the American people remains very low, and that "we are ready to adapt, and we are ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads if it spreads."
"The level that we have had in our country is very low, and those people are getting better, or we think that in almost all cases they are the better getting," he added.
"We are rapidly developing a vaccine. The vaccine is coming along well, and in speaking to the doctors, we think this is something that we can develop very rapidly a vaccine for the future and coordinate with the support of our partners," he said.
Meanwhile, Trump indicated that there are 15 confirmed coronavirus cases in the US, saying "we think that in almost all cases they are the better getting," out of which "eight of them have returned to their homes."
For his part, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told reporters at the press conference "as of today, we have 15 cases of COVID-19 that have been detected in the United States, with only one new case detected in the last two weeks."
He added "we also have three cases among Americans repatriated from Wuhan and 42 cases among Americans repatriated who had been stuck on the Diamond Princess in Japan."
"The President's early and decisive actions, including travel restrictions, have succeeded in buying us incredibly valuable time," he affirmed.
He stressed "this has helped us contain the spread of the virus, handle the cases that we have, and prepare for the possibility that we will need to mitigate broader spread of infections within the United States." (end)
si.mt