bdmetronews Desk ॥ The number of confirmed US coronavirus cases soared past 500 Sunday, including two further deaths, as President Donald Trump defended his administration’s “perfectly coordinated” response to the epidemic.
The surge came as medics headed to a cruise ship off the California coast to prepare passengers for landfall, and Senator Ted Cruz went into self-quarantine after shaking hands with an infected person.
Some 30 US states have been hit by the novel coronavirus, with Oregon the latest to declare an emergency, and 60 million people in California and New York under crisis measures.
Two more deaths linked to a virus-hit care home near Seattle were reported Sunday, bringing the nationwide toll to at least 21.
In an early-morning tweet, Trump, who has been accused of peddling misinformation on the outbreak, blamed the media for trying to make his government “look bad.”
“We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus,” he tweeted.
“We moved VERY early to close borders to certain areas, which was a Godsend. V.P. is doing a great job. The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to make us look bad. Sad!”
But Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, criticized Trump, telling NBC the president “hasn’t communicated the way I would, and the way I might like him to.”
Fellow Republican Cruz revealed he had shaken hands at a conservative conference with a person who later tested positive.
“I have decided to remain at my home in Texas this week, until a full 14 days have passed,” he wrote on Facebook, adding he had no symptoms.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence also attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington last month.
– ‘Unprecedented and difficult’ –
A Johns Hopkins tally put the number of confirmed US cases at 537 by Sunday afternoon, with newly diagnosed patients in states including Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey.
