Asked if he regrets referring to a coronavirus "hoax" this week, the president said it was a "hoax referring to the action [political rivals] take trying to pin this to someone. The hoax is on them."

Vice President Mike Pence announced that the administration raised its travel warnings to the highest level for certain parts of South Korea and Italy to the highest level and was expanding travel restrictions to include any foreign national who has visited Iran within the last 14 days.

Trump also boasted that the government has stockpiled 43 million masks for health professionals and said that he will be meeting with large pharmaceutical companies soon to discuss progress on a vaccine.

Washington state health officials, meanwhile, are investigating two coronavirus cases linked to a long-term care facility. A health care worker there is the first in the U.S. to be diagnosed with the virus, and the infection has also been confirmed in a resident.

Jeffrey Duchin, Seattle and King County health officer, told reporters on a call that 27 patients in the health care facility and 25 staff have symptoms of the coronavirus and will be tested.

During today's briefing, Trump identified the person who died in Washington state as a woman in her 50s — rather than a man, as later confirmed by federal and state health officials and Gov. Jay Inslee's office. In a tweet this afternoon, CDC Director Robert Redfield said his agency had "erroneously identified the patient as female" while briefing Trump and Pence.

There are now 22 cases of coronavirus in the U.S., Redfield said at the briefing. They include at least four people who became infected without traveling to a country where coronavirus is present or coming into contact with anyone known to have the disease.

"You will hear about additional cases that will be coming on, and you should not be surprised by that," Anthony Fauci, NIH's top infectious disease expert, said at the White House briefing this morning. "The challenge is how we deal with it."

The person who died in Washington state is among the cases of apparent community spread.

“It is a sad day in our state as we learn that a Washingtonian has died from COVID-19. Our hearts go out to his family and friends,” said Inslee, who declared a state of emergency after the death was announced. “We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus.”

As the numbers of U.S. cases continues to rise, the Food and Drug Administration this morning told certain labs that they could develop and use coronavirus diagnostic tests before the agency reviews them, in an answer to growing criticism that slow rollout of approved tests has stymied recognizing cases of the fast-spreading illness.

CDC has also broadened the number of people eligible for testing, in response to similar concerns. Agency guidelines originally called for testing only people who had traveled from China or had been in contact with someone known to be infected.

Washington state health officials said they tested two people with coronavirus symptoms immediately after CDC changed its testing criteria. Both people tested positive for the virus, setting in motion a broad public-health response, officials said.

"As screening expands this week we’ll find more cases," former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tweeted. "We likely have hundreds of cases, maybe few thousand across entire country."

Brianna Ehley and David Lim contributed to this report.