Economic relief effort for coronavirus is only beginning, White House says

President Trump and his top advisers acknowledged Saturday that some major employers and even whole sectors of the U.S. economy are shutting down temporarily due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the cost to taxpayers will be enormous.

With the government banning most flights from Europe and major cruise lines agreeing to halt excursions to U.S. ports for 30 days, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin wouldn’t even offer a guess at how much taxpayers will end up paying out to help those industries recover.

“There are parts of the economy that are shutting down or slowing down dramatically,” Mr. Mnuchin told reporters at the White House. “It would be premature to comment on specific money. I use the analogy of we’re in a baseball game, and we’re in the early innings. We have 100 different things that we’re looking at. Whatever we need to do, we will do.”

Congress has already approved $8.3 billion in emergency relief to states for medical supplies and other needs, and the House on early Saturday approved a larger measure to provide paid sick leave, free coronavirus testing and expanded unemployment insurance. The full cost of that measure isn’t known yet.

And Mr. Trump declared a national emergency on Friday, freeing up about $50 billion in aid for states and localities to combat the virus.

Mr. Mnuchin and lawmakers in both parties agree that a much bigger relief bill for businesses will be prepared soon.

“We are committed to use all the tools and all the resources of the government to make sure that we protect the economy,” he said. “The airlines are the most obvious because we have a unique circumstance where we have shut down travel, and these are of strategic importance to us, but we appreciate there’s many industries that are impacted by this. I would also say there’s many individuals. The president has talked about a stimulus program, whether it’s through a payroll tax cut whether it’s through refundable tax credits. We are 100% committed. And I can assure you there is bipartisan support.”

The total cost of the bailouts from the financial crisis of 2008-09 was $498 billion, according to an analysis last year by Deborah J. Lucas, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Golub Center for Finance and Policy.

Mr. Mnuchin said this crisis is different, in part because the duration will be relatively defined.

“This isn’t like the financial crisis, where people didn’t know how long this was going to go on,” he said.

But officials up to and including the president acknowledged that the full economic impact has yet to be felt.

Mr. Trump said he agrees with Apple’s decision to shut down most of its stores around the world for the next two weeks. He said it could help limit the spread of the virus, which has killed at least 50 in the U.S. and infected about 2,500.

“I think it’s frankly good if they do it. I think what Apple did is fine,” Mr. Trump said. “[If you] want to keep people away for a little while, just keep them away.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, delivered a stark warning at the briefing.

“We have not reached our peak,” Dr. Fauci said. “Now, we will see more cases and we will see more suffering and death, predominately, as the [vice president] said, among the vulnerables in our society, the individuals with the conditions that we spoke to and the elderly.”