Corona virus is spreading rapidly in the US - Trump makes an urgent appeal to US citizens

The corona virus is also spreading in the United States. President Trump initially denied the problem - but then reality caught up with him.

• The corona virus * spreads throughout the world.
• The virus is also spreading in the USA .
• A high number of unreported cases of infected people is expected.

Update at 10:34 pm: The US west coast metropolis of San Francisco imposes a curfew due to the spread of coronavirus. The Mayor of the city, London Breed, announced on Monday via Twitter that from midnight local time (corresponds to Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. after Central European Time), residents of San Francisco would be asked to stay at home "except for basic needs". Necessary government offices and essential businesses remained open, she emphasized.

Corona virus in the USA: Donald Trump makes an urgent appeal to the population

Update at 9:09 p.m .: To curb the spread of the corona virus as well as possible, US President Donald Trump made an urgent appeal to the American population on Monday evening (local time). He calls on all Americans to do without unnecessary trips in the next 15 days. As part of the new tightened guidelines, he also called for visits to restaurants and bars to be avoided and for crowds of more than ten to be avoided, Trump said at a press conference at the White House. Children should also be taught at home wherever possible.

Meanwhile, in the United States , a volunteer has received a test vaccine against the new coronavirus for the first time. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health, announced on Monday that this step was part of the first phase of clinical testing of the vaccine at a research institute in Seattle . In the coming weeks, 45 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55 will take the test at the research institute.

Coronavirus in the USA: vaccine research starts promisingly

The vaccine, called "mRNA-1273" , is being developed together with the private biotechnology company Moderna. The first test phase could be started in "record time" , said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases. Still, the entire process of developing a vaccine, according to Fauci, is expected to take at least one to a year and a half. A number of laboratories worldwide are currently researching vaccines against the coronavirus. Among others, the German pharmaceutical company CureVac .

First report from March 16, 2020:

Washington - The world stands still. The corona virus paralyzes most of the entire globe - and does not stop at the United States. As in Germany, public life is slowly moving towards a temporary standstill. New York , known as the “city that never sleeps” is currently considered to be a risk area because of Corona alongside the cities of California and Washington and now, sooner or later, it too has to stop. Even President Donald Trump was briefly suspected of being corona .

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Corona virus: what has happened in the US so far?

In January 2020, the first corona case was found in Washington State. According to zdf.de, it was a man who had entered China from the United States at the time. The country reported the first death to Corona in the United States at the end of February this year. In the meantime, the rate of infected people in this country has skyrocketed. In the United States, there are 3,774 confirmed cases of corona infection, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country currently has 69 deaths (Monday afternoon).

Italy also has news and the latest figures on the situation during the Corona crisis.

Corona virus in the USA: President Trump briefly suspected of corona

A few days ago it became clear that nobody - not even the most powerful of the most powerful - could be immune from the virus. President Donald Trump had contact with an infected person and then underwent a corona test. According to his doctor, the test was negative. Since then, controls on access to the US President's office have been tightened.

The corona virus flattens public life and also affects the primaries of the US presidential election. The states of Louisiana and Georgia have announced that they are postponing their March area codes due to the rapid spread of corona.

Corona: fear of a high number of infected people - too few tests in the USA

The number of unreported cases of the previously known Corona cases is also likely to be significantly higher: To date, the country has lacked tests. Trump had declared a national emergency on Friday and now wants to massively increase the number of tests available.

The president's crisis management has also been heavily criticized. He is accused of minimizing the danger posed by the virus. Trump repeatedly expressed misleading and misleading statements during the crisis. But it is not only the US government that has been criticized for its approach to fighting the corona virus. The German federal government has also been sharply criticized recently for a measure taken *.

Recently, there was also a dispute between Germany and the USA over a vaccine against the corona virus. With an offer of high financial contributions, Trump wanted the Tübingen vaccine company CureVac to produce a vaccine exclusively for the USA. However, CureVac did not get involved.

In Bavaria, however, Prime Minister Markus Söder declared the disaster because of the corona virus.

* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network

Rubric list image: © dpa / Rick Bowmer