In addition, the official U.S. coronavirus task force had been scheduled to hold a press briefing Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. However, it appears that this has been cancelled in favor of the Oval Office address. The event has been removed from the White House’s YouTube page as well as from whitehouse.gov.
While the task force is headed by Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump has appeared at many of the press briefings. Newsweek reached out to the White House to ask if Trump would speak tonight, but did not hear back by publication time.
Trump is also scheduled to speak later from the Oval Office at 9 p.m. While the exact content of the address is unknown, Trump told reporters that he would speak on the coronavirus’ effect on the economy as well as public health. It is likely that statement will also appear on the White House’s YouTube page, and be broadcast on the major networks and on cable news channels.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared that the coronavirus a pandemic. The virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has spread across 36 states in the U.S., as well as Washington D.C., with at least 170 cases nationwide. In the U.S. alone, 31 people have died, including the first deaths in New Jersey and South Dakota.
Worldwide, over 121,000 people have contracted the virus, however over 66,000 of those have fully recovered.
