Trump taps Pence to head up coronavirus outbreak response - CBS News

Washington — President Trump announced Wednesday night that he's placing Vice President Mike Pence in charge of efforts to tackle the coronavirus, as the administration seeks to reassure the public and the markets amid the global coronavirus outbreak. The president, speaking for only the second time from the White House press briefing room, tried to instill confidence that his administration is on top of the health epidemic.

Speaking to reporters while flanked by Pence, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and other officials on his coronavirus task force, the president said the risk to Americans from the virus is "very low," even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns Americans to prepare for disruptions of their normal lives and the spread of the virus is a matter of if, not when. Mr. Trump appeared to disagree with that assessment.

"I don't think it's inevitable. It probably will. It possibly will. It could be at a very small level or it could be at a larger level. Whatever happens, we're totally prepared," the president told reporters.

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Minutes after the president ended his press conference, the CDC announced a confirmed case of the virus in California in someone "who reportedly did not have relevant history or exposure to another known patient with COVID-19," the official name for the virus that experts believe originated in China. 

President Trump holds a news conference with members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the coronavirus outbreak at the White House on February 26, 2020. Getty Images

Azar is remaining the head of the president's coronavirus task force, but Pence said the administration will add personnel to the White House to address the outbreak, and work closely with Congress to address the situation.

Democrats and some Republicans are suggesting the $2.5 billion in funding the president has requested from Congress isn't enough. Mr. Trump, who said $2.5 billion is a "lot," said his administration is willing to spend "whatever's appropriate" to address the outbreak.

Part of that funding is going towards developing a vaccine, which is still at least 12 to 18 months away, Dr. Andrew Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told reporters. Senators had offered similar estimates after a briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

"We can't rely on a vaccine over the next several months to a year," Fauci said.

Earlier in the day, Azar said in a congressional briefing that he couldn't guarantee price controls when a vaccine is developed, sparking concerns about affordability even when a vaccine is available to the general public.

The president, when asked, said schools should be preparing for the virus to spread. 

Mr. Trump has blamed news outlets and Democrats of stoking panic, as stocks suffered three days of steep losses on fears about the virus' impact. Pelosi criticized the president's response to the virus as underwhelming, and Mr. Trump took the opportunity Wednesday night to hit back at the speaker, calling her incompetent and suggesting she isn't capable of managing her own district.

"She's trying to create a panic, and there's no reason to panic," Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump appeared to express confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying the Chinese leader is working "very hard" to combat the outbreak. The president's own top officials, like economic adviser Larry Kudlow, have expressed they don't think China is being transparent enough with its information, and is blocking U.S. health officials from entering the country. 

The president highlighted his administration's efforts to screen people coming from high-risk areas, and temporary ban on non-citizens coming to the U.S. from China. That action, Mr. Trump said, is critical. 

"Had I not made a decision very early on not to take people from a certain area, we wouldn't be talking this way," Mr. Trump said. "We'd be talking about many more people being infected. I took a lot of heat. Some people called me racist because I made a decision so early. And we had never done that as a country before, let alone early. So, it was a bold decision. Turned out to be a good decision."

The administration has been inconsistent in its statements about the virus, which started last last year in China. There are now tens of thousands of cases worldwide and a handful in the United States.

The pieces of information about the virus coming from the administration have, at times, been inconsistent. 

Kudlow asserted Tuesday on CNBC that "we have contained this ... I won't say airtight, but pretty close to airtight." And Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, was caught making inaccurate statements about the coronavirus during a hearing Tuesday. 

On Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed frustration with administration officials about inconsistencies in the information they're providing. GOP Senator John Kennedy grew testy with Wolf, who incorrectly stated what the coronavirus mortality rate is, compared to the flu virus. Wolf also testified that the U.S. is "several months" away from a vaccine for the coronavirus, but the CDC said the timeline is closer to 12 to 18 months.

"You're head of Homeland Security, sir. Your job is to keep us safe," Kennedy told Wolf after he couldn't answer how many coronavirus cases are expected in the United States. 

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2020-02-27 15:45:00Z
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New Delhi riots leave 38 dead as India balks at U.S. reaction to the religious violence - CBS News

People mourn next to the body of Muddasir Khan, who was fatally wounded Tuesday in a clash between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law, in New Delhi, India, February 27, 2020. ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS

Delhi — The death toll from four days of sectarian violence in India's capital has risen to 38, making it the worst religious rioting Delhi has seen in more than three decades. Over 200 people have been injured, dozens of them shot, as mostly-Hindu supporters of a controversial new citizenship law seen as discriminatory against the country's minority Muslim population clash with opponents. 

Despite assurances from government and police officials Wednesday that the situation was under control, new clashes were reported early Thursday morning, and the death toll continued to rise sharply. Residents in the hardest-hit neighborhoods have told CBS News they're afraid to leave their homes.

The violence prompted the U.S. Embassy in India to issue an advisory for American citizens in the capital city, urging them to "exercise caution," "keep a low profile" and "avoid all areas with demonstrations."

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In Washington, the U.S. government's Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemned the "brutal and unchecked violence" in Delhi and urged the Indian government to "take serious efforts to protect Muslims and others targeted by mob violence."

India's External Affairs Ministry dismissed the commission's comments as "factually inaccurate and misleading," and said they appeared to be "aimed at politicizing the issue."

New law behind the clashes

The controversial law at the heart of the violence is called the Citizenship Amendment Act. Brought in by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, the law makes it easier for people facing religious persecution in three neighboring countries — Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh — to get Indian citizenship. But the law specifically excludes Muslims. 

There were widespread, deadly protests as soon as the law was passed in December, and they have continued to this day.

Opponents of law in secular India, including both Hindus and Muslims, argue that it is unconstitutional for singling out a religious group. They say it is part of a larger plan by Modi's right-wing, Hindu nationalist government to marginalise the country's 200 million Muslims. 

"We don't sleep at night"

The latest clashes kicked off in Delhi on Sunday, the eve of President Donald Trump's first state visit to India.  

Houses, shops, cars, and mosques were gutted as mobs armed with sticks, stones, and Molotov cocktails ransacked at least 10 neighborhoods in northeast Delhi. There has been no official breakdown of the casualty figures, but local reports suggest the majority of the dead and injured are Muslims. But Hindus, including members of the security services, are among those to have been killed. 

A resident in Mustafabad, one of the worst-hit areas in the capital, who wished to be identified only as Ahmed, told CBS News the trouble started when a mob shouting Hindu religious slogans tried to break up a sit-in protest against the new citizenship law, which had been carrying on peacefully for 40 days.

"They started throwing stones at the protesters, who then retaliated," he said. 

A group of men chanting pro-Hindu slogans beat Mohammad Zubair, 37, who is Muslim, during protests sparked by a new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, February 24, 2020. DANISH SIDDIQUI/REUTERS

Police have been accused of failing to stop such aggression against Muslims. On Wednesday, India's Supreme Court said timely action by the police could have saved lives, and the Delhi High Court also chastised the police for failing to file cases against politicians who gave hate speeches days before the clashes began. 

"The police did nothing. They just gave the rioters a free hand," said Ahmed. "They didn't even let ambulances come into our areas." 

Ahmed said the Hindu attackers were not from the adjacent, Hindu-majority area of Shiv Vihar, whom he and his neighbors know well. He said those neighbors had even given "refuge to hundreds of Muslims who fled when the militant mobs were on rampage." In other words, the attacking mob was not a local group, but from outside the immediate area, according to Ahmed.

"There is so much fear and tension we don't sleep at night," said Jamal, another resident who uses only one name. "We remain on guard in the streets the whole night." 

"I know five people who have died in our locality; four of them have bullet wounds and one was stabbed," he told CBS News.

Fearing further violence, dozens of families from the worst affected areas — both Muslims and Hindus — have moved out to safer places in the sprawling capital city, further afield. 

People look out near a burnt-out and damaged shop at the riot-hit area following clashes between people supporting and opposing a cententious amendment to India's citizenship law, in New Delhi on February 27, 2020. MONEY SHARMA/AFP/Getty

The Delhi judge who accused the police of failing to cite politicians for hate speech was transferred to a different court later the same night. The government called his transfer "routine," and said it had been arranged previously. The new judge heard the case on Thursday and gave the government one month to tell the court what action it has taken against the politicians for their alleged hate speech.

An address by a Hindu leader of Prime Minister Modi's own party sparked the complaints of hate speech. Kapil Mishra had told a crowd, in front of a senior police officer, that he had appealed to the police to clear the anti-citizenship law protest sites. 

"I want to tell them (police) that we will stay silent until Trump's departure, but after that we will not even listen to you," Mishra said.  

Journalists attacked   

Several journalists who covered the recent clashes have said they were threatened, heckled, and in some instances even beaten by the mobs. 

Times Now correspondent Parbina Purkayashtha told CBS News she was surrounded by a group of men with sticks in their hands while she was reporting live on camera in the Maujpur area Sunday evening. 

"They said they would kill me," she said. "I sat down, cried and pleaded with them to let me go, but they didn't listen. They were about to hit me with a stick when one of them told them not to and I ran for my life."

"I was scared they would catch me for being a journalist, molest me for being a girl, lynch me for being a Muslim," another journalist, Ismat Ara, wrote about her experience covering the clashes.

She told CBS News it would "take some time to recover from all this."   

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2020-02-27 16:01:00Z
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South Korea struggles to contain coronavirus outbreak - Al Jazeera English

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1. South Korea struggles to contain coronavirus outbreak  Al Jazeera English
2. World scrambles to curb fast-spreading coronavirus  Reuters
3. Live updates: Fears grow of a coronavirus pandemic as markets stumble again; Japan shuts schools  The Washington Post
4. Coronavirus live updates: New coronavirus case may be 1st sign of "community spread" in U.S.  CBS News
5. On the verge of a pandemic, can the world look to China for answers?  USA TODAY
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2020-02-27 13:30:51Z
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The coronavirus goes global: Travel bans, face masks, and fear - CNN

In this photo illustration, a woman sprays disinfectant onto her hands in Berlin, Germany, on February 26. As the novel coronavirus spreads across Asia, people have rushed to stock up on sanitation and cleaning products. In major cities like Hong Kong, stores sold out of hand sanitizer, toilet rolls, face masks, disinfecting wipes, and more.

Florian Gaertner/Getty Images

By Jessie Yeung, CNN

Updated 1135 GMT (1935 HKT) February 27, 2020

In this photo illustration, a woman sprays disinfectant onto her hands in Berlin, Germany, on February 26. As the novel coronavirus spreads across Asia, people have rushed to stock up on sanitation and cleaning products. In major cities like Hong Kong, stores sold out of hand sanitizer, toilet rolls, face masks, disinfecting wipes, and more.

Florian Gaertner/Getty Images

The novel coronavirus has gone global. What had began as an outbreak in China is now threatening to become a worldwide pandemic, having reached every continent except Antarctica.

Since it was first identified in mid-December, the virus has killed more than 2,800 worldwide. Though the vast majority of those deaths have occurred in Hubei, the province at the center of the initial outbreak, new clusters are fast expanding outside of China, in countries as diverse as Iran, Italy and South Korea.

In the past week alone, 20 countries confirmed their first cases of the coronavirus, mostly in Europe and the Middle East.

On Wednesday, for the first time, there were more cases reported outside China that inside, according to data from the World Health Organization.

Globally, more than 3,200 cases have now been confirmed outside of China, bringing the total number to more than 82,000.

As anxiety and fear spreads around the world, international authorities are scrambling to contain the virus. Numerous countries are closing borders, placing cities on lockdown, and implementing stringent quarantine measures; Italy has effectively quarantined 100,000 people.

This rise in public fear has seen shops in Italy and other hard-hit regions sell out of medical supplies like face masks -- an echo of the same panic buying that had gripped Asia just earlier this month.

And though the WHO has yet to call the outbreak a pandemic, international experts are warning that people should get ready for such an escalation.

"Ultimately we expect we will see community spread in this country," said Nancy Messonnier, a director at the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention. "It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness."

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2020-02-27 11:05:00Z
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Coronavirus live updates: New coronavirus case may be 1st sign of "community spread" in U.S. - CBS News

President Donald Trump has appealed for calm and put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of America's coronavirus response, insisting the country is "very, very ready" to tackle the deadly disease even if it starts to spread more widely inside the U.S. 

Mr. Trump said the risk to Americans remained very low, but his bid to ease nerves — and shore up jittery stock markets in an election year — came as officials confirmed the first case of suspected "community transmission" of the COVID-19 disease in the country: a patient in California with no recent travel history to coronavirus hotspots or known contact with infected people.

The World Health Organization continues to say there's time to rein in the virus that emerged late last year in central China, and is declining to label it a global pandemic. But with cases in more than 40 countries, the WHO chief said it was "deeply concerning" to see the disease spreading fast outside China, most significantly in South Korea, Italy and Iran.

South Korea announced its largest daily jump in confirmed cases on Thursday, with 505 more patients and a 13th death. There were almost 1,800 people infected in South Korea, the largest outbreak to date outside China. With an American service member among those infected, the U.S. has postponed scheduled joint military drills with South Korea and urged Americans to avoid travel to the country.

Former Homeland Security official on U.S. coronavirus response

Italy, home to the biggest outbreak outside Asia and the source of smaller disease clusters in neighboring European countries, saw a 25% increase in cases on Wednesday. The virus has also gained a foothold in the Middle East, spreading to a growing number of countries from Iran, where there are widespread concerns the government is under-reporting the true scale of the outbreak.

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2020-02-27 13:24:00Z
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Coronavirus: New cases outside China outnumber those inside for first time since start of epidemic - South China Morning Post

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1. Coronavirus: New cases outside China outnumber those inside for first time since start of epidemic  South China Morning Post
2. Why the WHO Won't Call the Coronavirus a Pandemic  Bloomberg
3. Coronavirus now spreading faster outside of China - amid pandemic fears  Channel 4 News
4. Coronavirus: at this rate, how is China’s economy to recover lost ground?  South China Morning Post
5. Coronavirus: WHO warns world to brace for pandemic | DW News  DW News
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2020-02-27 10:09:33Z
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'They brought batons inside the mosque': Victims recount Delhi's worst sectarian violence in decades - CNN

The mob descended on the mosque in the Ashok Nagar neighborhood of New Delhi chanting praises to a Hindu deity, Jai Shri Ram, before beating up the imam and killing the muezzin, who was leading the call to prayer, Samar told CNN.

"They brought batons and stones inside the mosque and the people outside had guns as well. We had to stop praying and run away," Samar, whose eye was severely injured in the attack, said.

Protesters hoisted a saffron flag, associated with Hindu far-right groups, from the mosque's blackened minaret. The flag was only removed Wednesday morning after a CNN team asked police why it was still hanging there.

Tuesday was the third consecutive night of deadly communal clashes in the capital between Hindus and minority Muslims over a divisive new citizenship law.

More than thirty people have been killed since riots broke out on Sunday, according to a hospital spokesperson. It is the worst sectarian violence Delhi has seen in decades.

The unrest, which coincided with a visit to India by US President Donald Trump, erupted between those demonstrating for and against the law that fast-tracks Indian citizenship for religious minorities of every faith other than Islam.

Eyewitnesses told CNN that angry mobs targeted Muslim areas overnight on Tuesday, burning and looting homes and shops. Authorities deployed tear gas to disperse crowds, as protesters hurled stones and set surrounding property on fire, according to police. Lawyer Suroor Mander said that pellet bullets were also used by police.

The death toll is expected to rise as the counting process continues, the chief casualty medical officer at Delhi's Guru Tej Bahadur Hospital said Wednesday. One of the deceased was a police officer, who died from a bullet injury to the head.

Since the violence began, at least 200 people have been treated in hospital, mostly for bullet injuries, and the rest from blunt force trauma, according to hospital officials.

Delhi police, who are under the central government's direct command, have been accused by witnesses of turning a blind eye to, or being complicit in, the violence. Police deny those claims.

The mood was tense in New Delhi on Wednesday morning, as riot police patrolled the streets and the city's highest elected official, Arvind Kejriwal, called for a curfew to be instated. Kejriwal said on Twitter that police were "unable to control (the) situation and instil confidence" despite ongoing efforts overnight, and requested that the military be called in.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu national government has been accused of stoking religious tensions by introducing the citizenship law, appealed for peace on Wednesday.

"Peace and harmony are central to our ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times," Modi tweeted, breaking his silence.

"It is important that there is calm and normalcy is restored at the earliest," he added.

'I am too scared to live here now'

Trump's state visit was hoped to demonstrate India's prominence on the global stage. Instead, it put a spotlight on months of inflamed religious tensions.

Protests have roiled India since December, when Modi backed the passage of the citizenship law. Many Indian Muslims point to it as an example of how the government has abandoned them, and say they feel victimized.

The Prime Minister, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was reelected in a landslide victory last year, has dominated Indian politics since first sweeping to power in 2014. While he has been hailed for his efforts to bring prosperity to poorer regions and root out corruption, his emphasis on empowering India's Hindu majority has raised concerns.

To Modi's critics, the Citizenship Amendment Act has become the most brazen example of a Hindu nationalist agenda aimed at marginalizing Indian Muslims -- part of an effort to tear at the fabric of India's secular identity.

Khurseed Alam, a rickshaw driver who lived next to the mosque in Ashok Nagar, said that Modi's campaign promises of a prosperous future have proven empty. His family home, where he lived with 10 of his relatives, was burned by the mob, along with three other Muslim homes and neighboring shops.

The head of the Delhi Fire Department told CNN that it had received 170 reports of arson in northeast Delhi over the last two days alone.

"I used to work here in the market and earned around 500 rupees ($7). That's also over now. What else can I do?" Alam asked, before saying sarcastically that these must be the "ache din," or "good days," that Modi had pledged during the 2014 election.

Others living in the neighborhood said that they are fearful for their lives.

Asana Begum was hiding with several other families in a nearby house as the mob tore through the area. She said that policemen eventually took them to safety, but when they returned home, nothing was left.

"I am too scared to live here now. What can we rely on to live here? My daughters were to get married, we had collected all the things for them. They left nothing, we had collected the entire dowry but nothing is left," Begum said.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, a Delhi Police spokesman said that 106 people had been arrested in connection with the incidents in northeast Delhi.

"The miscreants are being identified. We have the CCTV footage and strong evidence," the spokesman said.

Police were patrolling northeast Delhi on Wednesday to reassure locals the situation was under control, the deputy commissioner of police for the district told CNN affiliate News 18, adding that there had been no further reports of arson.

After visiting the riot-hit areas in East Delhi, India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval downplayed the violence, saying there was "no enmity" among locals and only "a few criminals" were responsible for fomenting trouble. "If Allah wills, there will be total peace here," Doval said.

CNN's Esha Mitra contributed to this report from New Delhi.

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2020-02-27 08:16:00Z
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