The White House and U.S. congressional leaders in the Senate reached an agreement on a $2 trillion relief package amid the COVID-19 pandemic, White House official Eric Ueland said shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are done. We have a deal,” he said.
The text of the deal was not expected to be available until later on Wednesday.
The package would give direct payments of up to $3,000 to most U.S. families, and provide some $367 billion to a program for small-business loans to help them keep making payroll as workers are forced to stay home due to orders in several states across the country.
The package also includes a $500 billion fund for guaranteed, subsidized loans to help larger industries, $250 billion for expanded unemployment aid, and $75 billion for hospitals.
The pandemic has killed more than 800 people in the United States and infected more than 55,000 to date, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
Confirmed cases of the CCP virus continue to rise in the United States as testing improves and as more people are becoming exposed to the virus.
The United States confirmed more than 10,000 new cases on Tuesday, the highest number reported in one day so far.
“Stay at home” orders have been issued over the past week in multiple U.S. states, affecting about one in three U.S. residents, in efforts to curb the spread of the virus. The states include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia, and Washington.
Residents are recommended to remain at home unless they need to leave for essential activities. Non-essential businesses have also been ordered closed. Each state has slight variations as to what qualifies as “essential,” but generally the list encompasses grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies, and basic health services.
On the same day, Trump said he was invoking the Defense Production Act to directly order firms to produce critical goods in response to the outbreak, allowing for the hastening of production of medical supplies like ventilators, masks, and test kits. Trump also directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development to suspend evictions.