ADDS REMARKS FROM US PRESIDENT, WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT
By Beyza Binnur Donmez
ANKARA (AA) – U.S. President Donald Trump signed an $8.3 billion emergency funding bill Friday to fight the coronavirus outbreak, as the number of infections with the virus is nearing 100,000.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere announced that Trump signed the Coronavirus Supplemental funding bill before departing the White House for the U.S. state of Tennessee.
"The funding, which the president requested, will accelerate development of a vaccine and assist with response efforts," Deere said on Twitter.
Also, Trump's planned visit to Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) later Friday canceled due to a suspicious case.
"We may go. They thought there was a problem with CDC with somebody who had the virus," Trump told reporters while signing the bill.
The president confirmed that the individual has "tested negative" for the virus and added: "So I may be going. We’re going to see if they can turn it around."
Meanwhile, White House explained the cancelation by saying that Trump "does not want to interfere with the CDC."
"The President is no longer traveling to Atlanta today," the statement said. "The CDC has been proactive and prepared since the very beginning and the President does not want to interfere with the CDC's mission to protect the health and welfare of their people and the agency."
The announcement of the presidential visit has been made by the White House earlier this week after some U.S. officials criticized the CDC with a lack of information sharing.
The death toll from the epidemic reached at least 14 in the U.S., according to the CDC and state health officials.
The Senate passed the bill Thursday a day after it was approved by the House of Representatives. It aims to help local and federal authorities combat the deadly outbreak.
First detected in Wuhan, China in December, the disease, also known as COVID-19 now is present in over 87 countries worldwide.
The global death toll has crossed 3,300, with more than 97,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Notably, some 52,000 patients who contracted the virus recovered.
The WHO, which declared the outbreak an international health emergency, recently updated the global risk level to very high.
