Updated 12:43 p.m.
President Donald Trump said 22 people in the U.S. have been stricken by the new coronavirus and additional cases in the United States are “likely.”
Trump provided an update on the virus after the first reported U.S. death Saturday, whom he described as a woman in her late 50s who was a high medical risk. He said healthy Americans should be able to recover if they contract the new virus.
COVID-19 is caused by a member of the coronavirus family and is a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past.
The virus threat has spooked global markets and the public at large.
Trump cautioned that “there’s no reason to panic at all.” A ban on foreign nationals who have visited Iran in the last 14 days was announced and Americans were urged not to travel to areas in Italy and South Korea hit by COVID-19.
The president spoke a day after he denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a “hoax” cooked up by his political enemies.
Read More: Seattle Area Patient With Coronavirus Dies (via NPR.org)
