Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump said Monday that the White House is evaluating whether to encourage isolation measures, such as a quarantine or curfew, in certain novel coronavirus "hotspots" around the country, but is not considering issuing those measures nationwide.

"At this point, not nationwide, but ... we may look at certain areas, certain hotspots, as they call them. We'll be looking at that," Trump said during a White House press briefing.

But the President added that no decisions had been taken regarding a national curfew. "We haven't really determined to do that at all and hopefully we won't have to," he said. "That's a very big step."

"It's a step we can take, but we have not decided to do it," he added.

The comments come amid active discussions within the Trump administration to encourage a possible "curfew" across the nation in which non-essential businesses would be encouraged to close by a certain time each night in response to the coronavirus pandemic , according to an administration official and another source familiar with the matter.

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