- President Donald Trump has extended federal social distancing guidelines to April 30.
- Trump said his administration will finalize its social distancing guidelines on Tuesday.
- He added that the coronavirus outbreak in the US is likely to peak in two weeks.
President Donald Trump has extended social distancing guidelines to April 30 and said the coronavirus outbreak in the US is likely to peak in two weeks.
Trump delivered his remarks during a White House press briefing on Sunday night.
“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won,” he said. “The better you do, the faster this whole nightmare will end.”
Trump said his administration will finalize its social distancing guidelines on Tuesday.
Trump also touted a June 1 deadline as to when the country will be “well on our way to recovery.”
“By June 1, we will be well on our way to recovery. We think by June 1, a lot of great things will be happening,” he said.
Trump previously touted an Easter deadline, which went against the advice of his own panel of experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has warned that lifting restrictions too soon could exacerbate the coronavirus spread. Easter falls out of April 12 this year.
“I just thought it was a beautiful time … a beautiful timeline,” Trump said last week of why he suggested lifting restrictions by Easter.
But Trump scaled back on an Easter deadline on Sunday night, saying that date was “aspirational.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that extending restrictions until April was a “wise and prudent decision.”
The US has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, with 139,675 confirmed cases and 2,436 deaths as of Sunday night. A majority of cases are concentrated in New York, which has over 59,000 confirmed cases.
Earlier on Sunday, Fauci appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and said that the US will see “millions of cases” of COVID-19 and more than 100,000 deaths.
“But I don’t want to be held to that,” he added. “I just don’t think that we really need to make a projection, when it’s such a moving target.”
Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, said in an interview with the TODAY Show last week that unless Americans continue practicing social distancing measures, there is a possibility that up to two million people could die in the US.
“Please… continue to follow the guidelines of social distancing and all of the other things about knowing where your hands are and washing your hands,” she said.
Source: MSN Singapore
