Vice President Mike Pence flew to the West Coast on Thursday to pledge support to blue-state leaders on the front lines of the coronavirus fight, as Congress sent President Trump an $8 billion package to thwart transmission and pursue a vaccine.
Mr. Pence sat down with Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, as Washington state confirmed another batch of cases in the Puget Sound region, bringing its state total to 70.
“The president wanted me to be here today to make it crystal clear we’re with you: We’re here to help,” the vice president said at the meeting in Tacoma.
“Washington state is setting a great example as states around the nation continue to experience the advent of the coronavirus in their communities,” Mr. Pence added. “We’re going to continue to look to the example that you’ve set here.”
Washington state has recorded 11 of the 12 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. Many of the fatal cases are linked to a nursing facility in Kirkland, in King County.
Mr. Inslee said he realizes his state is at the “tip of the spear” in the outbreak and that Americans are watching how it responds.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump poised to sign $8.3B coronavirus measure
The governor told residents to seriously consider avoiding or canceling large events and said he would boost workers’ compensation for quarantined health care workers and first responders. He also ordered private insurers to cover the cost of testing for the virus without co-pays and said the state will cover the costs for the uninsured.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, also ordered health insurers to waive cost-sharing. An estimated 2,700 people were self-quarantined in New York City, and another 1,000 were self-quarantined in Westchester County because of a cluster of cases there.
Meanwhile, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, confirmed the state’s first three cases Thursday evening. All three of those infected are state residents who had traveled overseas. Tennessee announced its first case.
The Trump administration is scrambling to validate test kits from the private sector and dispatch them to public health labs across the country, after stringent testing criteria and stutter-steps in getting accurate results made it difficult to root out U.S. cases.
The vice president said it will be tough to keep up with demand in the coming days.
“We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward,” Mr. Pence told reporters at a stop in Minnesota en route to the West Coast.
“For those who we believe have been exposed, for those who are showing symptoms, we’ve been able to provide the testing,” he said. “But as more Americans take an interest in this or have concerns about this, we want to make sure they have access to a coronavirus test as well, and we’ve made real progress on that in the last several days.”
The coronavirus was discovered in China’s Hubei province in December. It has infected 100,000 people and killed more than 3,300 worldwide.
The World Health Organization told nations Thursday to keep fighting.
“This is not a drill. This is not the time for giving up. This is not a time for excuses. This is a time for pulling out all the stops,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said.
Mr. Tedros said he saw encouraging signs in South Korea, which has recorded more than 6,000 cases.
“The number of newly reported cases appears to be declining, and the cases that are being reported are being identified primarily from known clusters,” he said.
Italy and Iran continued to grapple with the virus, however. Cases in each country have surged to more than 3,000, prompting authorities to close schools, cancel concerts and scrap sporting events or hold them in closed venues.
The coronavirus causes an illness called COVID-19 that is mild for many but can cause respiratory distress, organ failure and death, especially in older people or those with underlying medical conditions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking more than 200 infections in the U.S.
Nearly 50 of the cases are in patients who were repatriated from China and Japan, yet an increasing number of states are reporting cases with no known origin, heightening fears of rapid transmission from coast to coast.
Those fears prompted another sell-off Thursday on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 970 points, or 3.5%, to 26,121, erasing most of the 1,100 points gained from Wednesday’s trading.
Hoping to turn things around, the Senate approved an emergency funding bill on a 96-1 vote that sets aside billions of dollars for the pursuit of a vaccine and treatment, supports state, local and overseas efforts, and provides for low-interest loans to small businesses reeling from the outbreak.
The funding is about three times the $2.5 billion that Mr. Trump proposed for fighting the virus, although the president said he would embrace the extra money.
“In situations like these, no expense should be spared to protect the American people — and in crafting this package, none was,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Republican.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, voted “no” after senators rejected his bid to pay for the measure by cutting foreign aid.
Federal officials say the average American’s risk of infection remains low but that it’s important to protect the elderly and people with preexisting conditions in places with local transmission.
Mr. Trump has highlighted the share who recover.
“We have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around or even going to work. Some of them go to work,” Mr. Trump told Fox News personality Sean Hannity late Wednesday.
Those comments sparked a rebuke from Utah’s coronavirus task force, which posted a clip of the interview and reminded people not to go to work if they have symptoms of COVID-19.
“Even if you have very mild symptoms, going to work sick could be dangerous to others. Let’s work together to stop the spread of misinformation like what’s in this video,” the Utah group tweeted.
Mr. Trump fumed over the negative headlines and emphasized that he didn’t tell people to head into the office.
“I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work,” he tweeted.
At a campaign event Thursday night in Pennsylvania, the president urged Americans to “be calm” while acknowledging that the outbreak could hurt the U.S. economy in his reelection campaign year.
“Everybody has to be calm,” the president said at the televised town hall gathering in Scranton. “We have plans for every single possibility. We hope it doesn’t last too long.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director for infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, reiterated Thursday that “when you look at the country as a whole, the risk of getting infected is low.”
Mr. Pence stopped in Minnesota to thank the 3M Co., which is manufacturing respirator masks that protect health care workers on the front lines of outbreaks.
“Your company plays such an important role,” Mr. Pence told CEO Mike Roman in the Twin Cities area. “We couldn’t be more grateful for the efforts of American business leaders and companies like 3M who are coming alongside and ensuring that our nation has the resources, has the support to be able to deal with the coronavirus in every respect across the country.”
Back in Washington, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said the virus is permeating all aspects of American life. She joked that her party will have to “elbow bump” whoever emerges from the nominating contests for president.
“We’re not embracing anybody,” Mrs. Pelosi said.
The virus is hitting her home state of California especially hard with dozens of cases. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has declared a state of emergency. Investigators on Thursday started testing passengers of a cruise ship, the Grand Princess, which is docked off the coast of San Francisco after being recalled from a voyage to Hawaii.
One person died in Placer County, California, after taking the ship on an earlier leg to Mexico.
Officials hope to avoid the fate of the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that docked in quarantine off Yokohama, Japan, and recorded more than 700 cases in passengers and crew. Six people died from their infections.
“That was a bad quarantine. That was not a successful quarantine,” Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, told senators Thursday. “The lessons we learned there were negative lessons.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters that the Pentagon won’t be caught flat-footed, either.
It is crafting a comprehensive plan to handle a potential coronavirus outbreak inside the building, which is one of the largest office complexes in the world.
Mr. Esper said the plan will include a focus on simple mitigation steps — such as disinfecting copy machines, doorknobs and other much-used surfaces — and a broader plan to ensure the Pentagon remains open for business if coronavirus cases arise.
“We’re fully confident we can continue to perform the functions the Pentagon needs to perform if we have some type of outbreak in the building,” he said.
⦁ Dave Boyer, Alex Swoyer and Ben Wolfgang contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.