Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump has decided to use federal disaster powers to release more resources to combat the spread of coronavirus, people familiar with the decision said, and could declare a major disaster or emergency by Thursday afternoon.

The formal declaration is going through White House legal review as officials navigate how broad it can be, the sources said.

Aides have been weighing such a move for the past several days as a way to provide more resources for combating the coronavirus outbreak

"We have things that I can do, we have very strong emergency powers under the Stafford Act," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. "I have it memorized, practically, as to the powers in that act. And if I need to do something, I'll do it. I have the right to do a lot of things that people don't even know about."

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