President Donald Trump addressed the ongoing coronavirus outbreak during a Friday morning call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding that the U.S. is “working closely with China” to successfully stop the spread of the global health emergency.
June 28, 2019 — China’s President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with US President Donald Trump before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
“Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China,” POTUS tweeted Friday morning. “He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus.”
Trump pointed to China’s recently constructed hospitals, specifically tasked with handling coronavirus infected patients, and the warming weather as potentially positive signs of preventative efforts. (RELATED: Coronavirus And Quarantines: How Wokeness Endangers Public Health)
Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2020
….he will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone. Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 7, 2020
The White House added that President Xi further pledged on Friday morning to work on a phase two trade deal with the Trump administration.
The World Health Organization currently classifies the coronavirus as a global health emergency. Trump was briefed on the latest infection numbers Thursday during a closed door session at the White House.
FEBRUARY 03: A woman is seen wearing a face mask, as public fear over China’s Wuhan Coronavirus grows, on February 3, 2020 in Manila, Philippines. The Philippine government has been heavily criticized after failing to immediately implement travel restrictions on China, the source of a deadly coronavirus that has now killed more than 300 people and infected thousands more. On Sunday, the first coronavirus death outside of China was reported in the Philippines. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)
To date, hundreds of people have died from the coronavirus in China, with some estimates putting the count above 600. The first confirmed coronavirus-associated death outside of China occurred in the Philippines earlier in February, as the patient in question had recently returned from the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, China. So far, there are dozens of confirmed cases in the United States.
A report from Axios suggests that by spring, human-to-human transmission of coronavirus should plateau and a successful global recovery, coupled with advanced trade negotiations with China, could prove immensely favorable to the U.S. economy.