president dilma trump has now declared national emergency in the united states over the spread of the coronavirus the move releases billions of dollars in disaster funding and give special powers to federal health authorities the president has denied any responsibility for delays in making testing available as his administration has come under fire for being too slow to respond. president trump has come under considerable scrutiny in recent weeks for not moving quick enough to tackle the virus spread on friday he tried to reassure concerned americans and somewhat uncharacteristically cold for prudence americans are the strongest and most resilient people on earth and in the coming weeks we will all have to make changes and sacrifices but the short term sacrifices will produce long term gain. and again i've said we're learning a lot for the future and future problems like this or worse or worse it could get worse good by this truck but added that the next 8 weeks would be critical. among other things declaring a national emergency unlock some 50000000000 dollars for federal relief aid