Caption: President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing with the coronavirus task force, in the Brady press briefing room at the White House, Monday, March 16, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Photographer: Evan Vucci Provider: AP Source: AP Copyright: Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Donald Trump has admitted that the coronavirus outbreak is out of control.

Asked about a statement he made Sunday that the pandemic was ‘under control,’ the President of the United States said he’d been referring to his coronavirus task force’s approach to tackling the killer virus – rather than the pandemic itself.

He said: ‘If you’re talking about the virus, that’s not under control for any place in the world…

‘We have an invisible enemy. We have a problem that a month ago nobody ever thought about it.


‘It’s so contagious. It’s sort-of record-setting type contagion. Young people and healthy people do very well. Very very bad for older people, especially older people with problems.’

Donald Trump also conceded that the US could be heading into a recession (Picture: AP)

During Monday’s press conference Trump and his taskforce unveiled a set of ’15 days to slow the spread’ guidelines, with the current draconian rules initially in place for just over a fortnight to try and stem the number of coronavirus transmissions.



Trump also admitted for the first time that the US ‘may be’ heading for a recession, as stocks continued to tumble over fears the pandemic will spark huge job losses and decimate entire industries.

Moments after he spoke, the Dow Jones index of America’s 30 biggest publicly listed companies plunged by 3,000 points to 20,186 – losing almost 13% of its value with the biggest single-day drop in its history.

But he said he was more focused on defeating the pandemic than worrying about the economy, and claimed that US stocks would bounce back dramatically once the outbreak has receded.

President Trump also unveiled a set of guidelines called 15 days to slow the spread aimed at protecting the most vulnerable from coronavirus (Picture: CDC)

Trump explained: ‘(The) best thing I can do for the stock market is we have to get through this crisis…

‘Once this virus is gone, I think you’re going to have stock market like nobody’s ever seen before…The market will take care of itself.’

So far, 4,134 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in the US, with 71 people killed by the disease.