Vice President Mike Pence does not believe the coronavirus has spelled the end of recent economic growth.

Pence spoke Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, just days after the stock market in the United States saw its biggest decline in years, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting and reaching its largest, single-day point drop.

“The fundamentals of this economy are strong,” Pence said. “We just saw some new numbers come out in housing and consumer confidence and business optimism. Unemployment's at a 50-year low. More Americans working than ever before. The fundamentals in this economy are strong."

He added, “This economy will — and particularly the stock market that, that saw some downturns this week — it will come back. But our focus is going to remain on the health and well-being of the American people.”

Pence was put in charge of efforts to coordinate a response to the coronavirus in the U.S., which has seen 71 cases of the illness, most of which stemmed from a localized outbreak on a cruise ship. There have been almost 87,000 cases of the illness worldwide, with at least 2,979 deaths.

