The White House on Monday sent lawmakers an urgent $2.5 billion plan to address the deadly coronavirus outbreak, whose rapid spread and threat to the global economy rocked financial markets.

The White House budget office said the funds are for vaccines, treatment and protective equipment.

The request was immediately slammed by Democrats as insufficient and came as coronavirus fears were credited with Monday’s 1,000-plus point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and are increasingly seen as a potential political threat to President Donald Trump.

The request came as key government accounts were running low. The Department of Health and Human Services had already tapped into an emergency infectious disease rapid response fund and was seeking to transfer more than $130 million from other HHS accounts to combat the virus but is pressing for more.

Trump took to Twitter Monday to defend his record. “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”

The United States has had only 14 cases of the disease spread across seven states.

The Minnesota winter also claimed a life as a body was found this weekend.

Authorities are working to learn the identity of a person whose body was recovered from the Mississippi River in Minneapolis Sunday afternoon.

Authorities say it took more than two hours to complete the recovery because the body was caught in the ice.

Someone reported seeing the body upstream from the Franklin Ave. bridge about 12:15 a.m.

An investigation is underway to determine the circumstances surrounding the death.

St. Thomas campus construction continues through the cold, and progress has been made.

St. Thomas Chapel Renovations, including a new lighting system, fresh paint and added deco
ration, are complete.

Construction of the new Iverson Center for Faith and expansion of the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas began in May of 2019 and is slated to finish in June.

Mia Laube can be reached at mia.laube@stthomas.edu