No further lockdown in US, says Trump amid rising COVID-19 cases
No further lockdown will be imposed in the United States, said President Donald Trump on Wednesday even as several states are witnessing a spike in new COVID-19 infections, reported Reuters.
No further lockdown will be imposed in the United States, said President Donald Trump on Wednesday (June 17) even as several states are witnessing a spike in new COVID-19 infections, reported Reuters.
“We won’t be closing the country again. We won’t have to do that,” the report quoted the US president as saying in an interview with Fox News Channel. Earlier, the White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had said the US could not shut down the economy again, according to the report.
Related news: US COVID-19 death toll crosses its toll from World War I
The United States is the worst coronavirus-affected country in the world with over 21.63 lakh cases and more than 1.17 lakh deaths, according to the John Hopkins University’s tracker. However, the administration has reportedly attributed this spike in numbers to the increased testing in the country.
According to the New York Times, Vice President Mike Pence, in a call with the governors, had even encouraged them to repeat this claim. The NYT reportedly found that the average number of administered tests in at least 14 states were outstripped by the confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Vice President Pence has even termed the country’s response to the pandemic as a “cause for celebration”, even though a new poll has found more than half of Americans calling it fair or poor.
Related news: Nearly 2,600 US coronavirus deaths in 24 hours: Johns Hopkins tally
“We’ve slowed the spread, we’ve cared for the most vulnerable, we’ve saved lives, and we’ve created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future,” wrote Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Wednesday. “That’s a cause for celebration, not the media’s fear mongering.”
The country had earlier shut down restaurants, gyms, schools and other places in March in wake of the pandemic, rendering millions of its citizens unemployed.
(With inputs from agencies)