She also said 1,500 private companies have formed a consortium to address the drug and testing needs of coronavirus.

Georgia’s other senator, David Perdue, also attended the lunchtime briefing with Pence, and he said the vice president is aware of the cases in Georgia and working to ensure there are proper resources.

“The quarantines and the early restrictions on travel have bought us several weeks in terms of getting up on this,” Perdue said. “The number of testing packages is going up exponentially.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is working to relax its rules to speed up the regulatory process to get a coronavirus vaccine on the market, Perdue said.

Leaders of the House and Senate are privately negotiating the terms of emergency coronavirus spending, and both chambers could vote on the final package by the end of the week.

Loeffler and Perdue both said the risk to Americans remains low even if the virus is more deadly than the common flu. They said Georgians should continue to follow instructions from public health officials to lower the risk of spreading infectious disease.

» THE LATEST: Complete coverage of coronavirus in Georgia