Trump says virus risk low in US, praises Xi's efforts

Part of the funding will be earmarked to develop a vaccine for the virus, which health authorities said is at least a year away.

"We can't rely on a vaccine over the next several months to a year," National Institutes of Health Director Andrew Fauci said at the briefing.

The president said he had a "long talk" with Chinese President Xi Jinping the other night.

"He is working so hard on this problem," Trump said about China's efforts to contain the infection. "He wants it to go away from China and go away fast, and he wants to get back to business as usual."

Trump also said China has "a significant group of very talented people that are working", and the US is giving them "certain advice", with American experts being part of the World Health Organization team visiting China.

On Tuesday while in India, Trump said China "is working very, very hard" and "they've had a rough patch", but "they're getting it more and more under control".

"So I think that's a problem that's going to go away," he told a business roundtable in New Delhi.

Earlier Wednesday, the White House denied a report that it was considering appointing a coronavirus "czar" to coordinate the US response to the disease, saying that Trump "is pleased with the leadership" of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who is leading a coronavirus task force.

Pence said at the news conference that his role would be to work with the task force to bring "the best options for action" to the president.