CNBC reports that the U.S. Fed latest moves - which include cutting interest rates to zero - deserve applause, even though the American economy could still head into a recession given the uncertainty around the coronavirus outbreak, a former Fed official said.

"I think recessionary conditions are definitely a risk and we're dealing with so much uncertainty now on how this virus situation unfolds and what the economic impact turns out to be, nobody really knows," Dennis Lockhart, Atlanta Fed president from 2007 to 2017, told CNBC on Monday.

"I think we should applaud the Fed for, in a way, getting as much ahead of the curve as they can," he added.

Lockhart said the Fed has now "spent all their bullets from an interest-rate cut point of view." It remains to be seen whether that'll leave the central bank with less options to support the U.S. economy in the future, he added.