President Donald Trump said Friday while talking to reporters at the White House that he changed his plans to visit Atlanta because there were concerns someone at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Trump's visit to Atlanta is back on, now. He is expected to visit Nashville, Tennessee, and then head to Atlanta this afternoon.

President Trump said Friday he canceled a trip to Atlanta over concerns of coronavirus at the CDC.

"They thought there was a problem at CDC with somebody that had the virus," Trump said. "Yesterday afternoon we were informed that there may have been a person with the virus but they now find out that was a negative test. We may be going."

Trump entered the Diplomatic Room at 8:54 a.m., wearing black bomber jacket, white shirt with unbuttoned collar and no tie, and khakis, accompanied by Health Secretary Alex Azar.

He signed the $8.3 billion congressional emergency supplemental spending bill to contain the spread of the coronavirus. He held the bill up for the cameras, which clicked and flashed.

"So here we are, 8.3 billion," Trump said. "We're doing very well. But it's an unforeseen problem, not a problem. Came out of nowhere but we're taking care of it."

Azar said it wanted to be clear about how the test kits have been distributed. Georgia received 150 kits Thursday, GPB News previously reported.

MORE: Kemp Says Georgia Now Capable Of Testing For Coronavirus

"All of the CDC tests, the tests that are available to test up to 75,000 people, CDC has shipped to America's public health labs," Azar told reporters. "Those are out. Then IDT, the private contractor working with CDC to ship to the private sector and hospitals, has already shipped enough tests for 700,000 tests."

He added that remaining lots are arriving at CDC Friday morning for quality control and "should get out as we forecast this weekend and then next week we'll keep ramping up production."

As many as 4 million tests should be available next week, Azar said.

 

Tags: Coronavirus  Donald Trump  Atlanta  Georgia  Macon  Savannah