President Donald Trump has surprised many by announcing that he picked a date to reopen America amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Thus far, the virus has infected 672,931 Americans, and sadly, 34,386 of them have died. On Wednesday, Trump held a briefing from the White House, where he said that he is eying the date of May 1 to reopen the economy.
He stated: “While we must remain vigilant, it is clear that our strategy is working and very strong working. New cases are declining throughout the New York metropolitan area. Cases in Detroit and metro Denver areas are flat. Washington, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis is showing progress. New cases in New Orleans are declining. The data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases.”
The Republican politician promised to reveal a series of guidelines to make the relaunch of restaurants, shops, gyms, churches, and schools possible.
He explained: “These developments have put us in a strong position to finalize guidelines for states opening the country, which we will be announcing tomorrow. We will have a news conference tomorrow in the afternoon.”
He added: “We will be announcing guidelines. We will be talking about various states. It’s fascinating. It’s a horrible time to see such death and distraction, especially when you come out of what was the greatest economy in the history of the world.”
During the announcement, Trump made the alarming claim that the coronavirus had peaked based on the “graphs and models” he had been looking at.
Data shows that another 2,524 Americans have died of coronavirus in the past 24 hours. According to the experts from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, more than 68,800 Americans will perish by early August.
Trump also swallowed his words from one day ago when he loudly claimed that he had total power — he now says that the states and governors will decide when to reopen.
Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who are members of Trump’s task force for the pandemic, were more cautious with their statements.
Birx warned Americans by saying: “I will remind the people again; this is a highly contagious virus. Social gatherings, coming together, there is a chance an asymptomatic person can spread it unknowingly. We know if you are sick, you will stay home. Don’t have that dinner party for 20 yet.”
She continued: “We see as a country we are improving. Metro areas are improving, communities and counties are improving, but that also still requires everyone to social distance. In the end, we have states that have very few cases and very few new cases. These are ones the president is referring to. These are the groups we are working with very specific. Each of these governors and these mayors will have to make decisions after generalized guidelines are put out so they can do what is best for their communities. They are the front line.”
Fauci had this to say: “No matter what phase you’re in there are certain fundamental things that we’ve done that are not like it was in September or October, you want to call it the “new normal,” you can call it whatever you want.”
The upcoming weeks will be crucial in the fight against the pandemic.
