Trump news: President will not take coronavirus test despite dining with infected official as New York City declares state of emergency
White House says president will not be tested after Brazilian press secretary who dined at Mar-a-Lago infected
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The EU has hit back at Donald Trump after the president addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night to announce a 30-day emergency travel restriction on 26 European nations because of the coronavirus, with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen condemning a decision made “unilaterally and without consultation”.
US commentators were quick to express concern about the “militaristic, nationalistic” tone of the president’s drastic decree, with Barack Obama staffers Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes and David Litt all taking to Twitter to voice their fears. “He’s gonna get us all killed,” wrote Litt, not entirely joking.
Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders each offered their own course of action following Trump's address.
The former vice president and Vermont senator pleaded for "compassion" as the virus spreads, standing in stark contrast to the president's tonally bleak remarks.
Mr Sanders said: "If there ever was a time in the modern history of our country when we are all in this together, this is that moment."
Slamming the president's assessment of Covid-19 as a "foreign virus" as "falling back on xenophobia", Mr Biden called the lack of a comprehensive federal paid sick leave policy a "national disgrace" as millions of American workers could face cut hours or layoffs and quarantines that could significantly impact their incomes.
He unveiled his campaign's multi-pronged approach to the crisis, offering it up to the White House for consideration.
As the press secretary of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro reportedly tested positive for the virus days of meeting Trump, the White House has cancelled St Patrick’s Day celebrations with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar and Trump 2020 events in Colorado, Nevada and Wisconsin in the interest of safeguarding the public.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grishman said the president and Mike Pence have no plans to get tested, despite their likely exposure to the virus.
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China claims 'no conclusion has been reached yet on the origin of the virus, as relevant tracing work is still underway'
A conspiracy theory that the coronavirus originated in the US is spreading through China, fuelled by officials and a video from an interview with Centres for Disease Control director Robert Redfield.
In a video posted by the People's Daily, Mr Redfield suggests that some Americans who were previously thought to have died of influenza could have actually died from Covid-19.
When asked whether deaths in the US may have been wrongly attributed to influenza he replied: "Some cases have been actually diagnosed that way in the United States today."
The Independent's Louise Hall reports:
Former New Orleans mayor: 'President Trump, heed these five lessons from my career in disaster response'
Mitch Landrieu, who served as the Democratic mayor of New Orleans from 2010-2018, wrote a few suggestions to Donald Trump about how to handle the coronavirus crisis.
He adds: "A word of caution to my Democratic friends: this is an all hands on deck moment. Lives are at stake. Nothing levels the ideological differences like an emergency, which forces people to pull together."
Pundits floated Landrieu's name as a potential Democratic presidential candidate, but he has shot down plans to run in 2020.
That's it for today's live coverage of the Trump administration and the US coronavirus response.
Stay tuned with The Independent.
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