Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, praised President Trump’s actions to combat the coronavirus pandemic in the United States Thursday, citing testimony from doctors and medical experts.
“When the president froze civilian air travel to and from China -- he did that right at the beginning of this outbreak," Cruz told “Fox & Friends.” "That step, along with quarantining any Americans coming back from the infected region -- the two of those were unprecedented, number one, but, number two -- [it] played a major role in stopping the spread of the virus."
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On Wednesday afternoon, the Senate approved an $8.3 billion measure to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak one day after it passed the House. The money would pay for a multifaceted attack on a virus that continues to spread, threatening major disruptions in the U.S. and across the globe.
The plan allocates more than triple the $2.5 billion amount outlined by the White House 10 days ago, a proposal that was immediately discarded by members of Congress from both parties. Instead, they negotiated the increased figure in a burst of bipartisan cooperation that’s increasingly rare in Washington.
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Cruz noted that there are slightly more than 100 coronavirus cases and a total of 11 fatalities due to the virus, which he claimed are “far too many.”
“But, had the president not acted swiftly at the outset, the testimony we heard yesterday is those numbers in the U.S. would’ve been much much higher," Cruz said. "We need to keep doing everything possible to stop this spread of the disease but we also shouldn’t give in to panic or hysteria, we should be driven by facts or medical science.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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