WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday to combine America’s public and private resources to fight coronavirus and also launched a new Google site to screen millions of Americans.

“To unleash full potential of the federal government, I am officially declaring a national emergency — two very big words,” he said. “The action I am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion of very important...and a large amount of money for states, territories and localities.”

Mr Trump brought CEOs of America’s largest companies and pharmaceuticals to this live news conference at the White House Rose Garden and made them pledge to work together to defeat this deadly disease.

Vice President Mike Pence also addressed the briefing, telling Americans that this new Google site will allow them to “type in your symptoms and they will tell you whether or not you need a test.”

He said that pharmacies across the US will arrange drive by tests for those who are advised at these initial screening to take a test.

President Trump said Google had deployed 1,700 software engineers to conduct the initial screenings. “This is a historic public and private partnership to meet this need,” said Mr Pence, adding that Covid-19 (coronavirus) cases have been reported from 46 of America’s 50 states.

“It’s especially important to look after senior citizens with chronic health conditions as they are the most vulnerable,” the vice president said.

“We will overcome the threat,” said President Trump while asking all hospitals to prepare emergency plans. He said that Friday’s emergency orders will also confer broad, new authorities to his Health Secretary to give doctors and hospitals and health care providers maximum powers to deal with this pandemic.

“We will remove every obstacle. No research will be spared,” said Mr Trump, adding that half a million additional tests will be available by next week, 1.4 million early next month and 5 million by the end of the month.

Medical executives, who participated in this briefing, urged federal authorities to expedite their process of approving vaccines so that patients across the globe could be treated.

In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that following his call with President Trump and all G7 leaders, “we agreed to organise an extraordinary Leaders Summit by video conference on Monday on Covid-19.”

In a statement issued simultaneously in Washington and Geneva, the United Nations launched a Solidarity Response Fund to fight the deadly virus. The fund will support the work of the WHO and partners to help countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cases in the US have climbed past 1,700, even with sporadic and spare testing, and the death toll has risen to 41.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2020