The Trump administration on Monday downplayed the threat posed by the widening coronavirus outbreak, while U.S. stock markets plummeted after the open of trading on fears of a looming global recession.The number of confirmed U.S. cases of coronavirus was at 566 on Monday, including 22 deaths, according to state public health authorities and a running national tally kept by the Johns Hopkins University center tracking the outbreak.
About three-fourths of the 50 U.S. states have reported infections.
"Right now we're telling people to act as if this is a severe flu season," White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in an interview with Fox News from West Palm Beach, where President Donald Trump spent the weekend at his Florida resort.
