US President Donald Trump on Friday announced a national state of emergency, freeing up $50 billion in federal funds for the battle against the coronavirus pandemic as he vowed to “vastly” ramp up testing capacity.

During a press briefing at the White House, Trump said, “To unleash the full power of the federal government, I’m officially declaring a national emergency”.

“The next eight weeks are critical,” the US president further said.

“We can learn and we will turn a corner on this virus”, he added.

Trump called on all US states to set up emergency operation centers and said the government was partnering with the private sector to “vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test” for the virus, amid criticism about a lack of test kits nationwide.

President Trump said, “I’m also asking every hospital in this country to activate emergency preparedness plan to meet the needs of Americans everywhere,”

“We’ll remove or eliminate every obstacle necessary to deliver our people the care that they need and that they’re entitled to. No resource will be spared, nothing whatsoever,” he added.

On Friday, US suspended all passenger travel from Europe, except the UK for the next 30 days to stop the spread of coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 4,500 lives, including 37 in America, and sent global markets into a tailspin.

Trump said the European Union had “failed to take the same precautions” as his administration had implemented to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Giving details of the travel ban, Department of Homeland Security in a statement said Trump signed a Presidential proclamation, which suspends the entry of most foreign nationals who have been in certain European countries at any point during the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to the US.

The declaration came as the number of coronavirus cases in the US hit 1,800 with 41 deaths.

He declared the emergency under a 1988 law for funneling aid to states and local administrations.

Senate Republican leader Chuck Schumer has said that under the law known as the Stafford Act, $42.6 billion could be immediately available from the Disaster Relief Fund.

Schumer and 35 other senators had written to Trump on Wednesday asking him to declare the state of emergency to make the funds available.

The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus outbreak has risen to 3,179, the country’s National Health Commission said on Friday.

The global death toll is now over 4,900, with more than 134,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the outbreak “a pandemic.”

Over 110 countries and regions have reported 118,326 confirmed cases, including 37,371 cases outside China.

More than 4,000 people have died and over 110,000 have been infected worldwide, with the majority in China, though daily infections are now growing at a much faster pace abroad.

The novel Coronavirus outbreak has caused alarm as it has crossed global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic.

(With inputs from agency)