The White House is readying an urgent budget request to address the deadly coronavirus outbreak whose rapid spread is spooking financial markets and restricting international travel.
That's according to a senior administration official who confirmed Monday that the emergency request is still being developed and is likely to come this week. The Department of Health and Human Services has already tapped into an emergency infectious disease rapid response fund and is transferring more than $130 million from other HHS accounts to combat the virus.
The global market plunged Monday morning as a surge of new cases and spread of the virus outside of China sparked concern.
In Italy, authorities have set up roadblocks, called off soccer matches and shuttered sites including the famed La Scala opera house. In Iran, a report of dozens of deaths in a single city emerged as infections were reported to have spread for the first time to Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Afghanistan.
South Korea is now on its highest alert for infectious diseases after cases there spiked. The Overwatch League is postponing three weeks' worth of scheduled matches in Seoul due to the spreading of the virus. The league previously postponed matches scheduled for three cities in China this month and rescheduled them for March in Seoul due to the COVID-19 illness.
China also reported 409 new cases, raising the mainland's total to 77,150 after a zigzag pattern of increases in recent days. Its 150 new deaths from the illness showed a spike after four days