From the newsroom of the Washington Post.

Hi, this is Tracy Jan Colley from the Post.

I'm a president for a power you power.

Hi, it's Robert Given, at the Washington Post.

This is Post Reports.

I'm Martin Powers.

It's Friday, March 13th.

Today, why so many Americans still can't get tested for the coronavirus?

And what a global pandemic means for the state of the environment?

To unleash the full power of the federal government that this effort today,

I am officially declaring a national emergency.

Two very big words.

On Friday afternoon, President Trump declared the coronavirus to be a national emergency.

That allows some authority to use tens of billions of dollars allocated by Congress for disaster relief.

And that could help with a big issue throughout the outbreak, the availability of coronavirus tests.

We want to make sure that those who need a test can get a test very safely quickly and conveniently.

But we don't want people to take a test if we feel that they shouldn't be doing it.

For the last few weeks, the federal government has gotten a lot of criticism for how they've handled testing.

Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test week.

They're there. They have the test and the tests are beautiful.

Anybody that needs a test gets a test.

That was President Trump at the CDC last week.

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