President Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration was close to completing a plan to re-open the U.S. economy, which has been largely shut down to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
In his daily news briefing, Trump noted that the number of deaths from the virus in the United States had begun to plateau, indicating that “social distancing” efforts had succeeded.
State governors, meanwhile, appeared to be discussing plans to resume economic activity without seeking input from the Trump administration.
Nine states on the U.S. East and West coasts said on Monday they had begun planning for the slow reopening of their economies and lifting of strict stay-at-home orders.
The virus has killed more than 22,000 people in the United States and shut down all but essential travel and businesses.
Pressed on the question of whether governors or the federal government would make the decision to re-open schools and closed businesses, the president said that he had ultimate authority.
“The president of the United States calls the shots,” Trump said. “That being said, we’re going to work with the states.”
“We’re very close to completing a plan to open our country.” pic.twitter.com/xnV4XxwnjL
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 13, 2020
In the video below, the US job market nosedives amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Will the US reopen on May 1 despite increasing number of COVID-19 deaths?
A 1 May deadline to reopen the United States economy is being floated by senior administration officials ahead of an announcement on Tuesday by President Trump of a new advisory council to advise him on that decision.
One of the main models being used to plot the course of the coronavirus outbreak in the country also shows that the number of cases and daily deaths may have peaked this past weekend, albeit at a very high level.
1 May, known as International Workers Day, and the date, while not a certainty, is what the administration is grappling with as they seek to get Americans back to work as soon as possible, but also as safely as possible as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Dr Stephen Hahn explained.
“I think, obviously, everybody wants to get back to work. I’ve been hearing that from friends and colleagues around the country. Certainly, there are urgent economic reasons for that. However, I think the task force, the president, the vice president, all the doctors on the task force are really looking at this from a balanced approach. The primary issue here is the safety and the welfare of the American people. That has to come first. That has to be our first consideration.”
The Institute for Health, Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington provides one of the go-to projection models that shows a peak in daily deaths on 10 April, when the country lost more than 2 000 people.
While still above at least 1 500 deaths in the days since, the numbers have begun to come down as the curve begins to bend.
In the video below, Donald Trump has announced that he will set up a second coronavirus task force after US daily deaths pass 2 000.
