BREAKING: Trump Expected to Declare National Emergency

President Donald Trump is set to declare a national emergency over the coronavirus, according to a report.

Bloomberg News reported the news ahead of Trump’s news conference at 3 p.m. EST.

“Trump plans to declare a national emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, invoking the Stafford Act to open the door to more federal aid for states and municipalities, sources tell me,” tweeted Bloomberg News reporter Jennifer Jacobs.

[Watch live: Trump holds White House press conference on the coronavirus]

According to Bloomberg News, the Stafford act would allow for states to have access to the more than $42 billion in the Disaster Relief Fund.

The move comes as the Trump administration struggles to respond the spread of a virus that has shut down foreign countries and prompted the White House to restrict travel between the U.S. and Europe. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency on Thursday, following the lead of several other states.

Government agencies have come under bipartisan fire for the response to the virus, which has spread to major cities in the United States since it was first discovered in Wuhan, China.

In an appearance on NBC Friday morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hoped the slow start of widespread testing for the coronavirus was a problem of the past in the United States.

“The difficulty was the connection between the people and the process and connecting them with actually implementing the tests. It was the reason why people, as you know, are calling in, saying I tried to get a test and couldn’t get it,” he said. “Hopefully, that’s behind us. Looking forward, as I mentioned a moment ago, we should start seeing an escalation of the capability of getting tested.”

“Where we’re looking now is forward. Hopefully in the next few days to a week or so, it is going to be a major escalation.”