US President Donald Trump may extend national social distancing guidelines until early summer or later.
“We may, and we may go beyond that,” Trump said during a White House press briefing on Thursday. The press asked him if the administration would extend the federal guidelines at least until the start of summer.
“We’re going to have to see where it is,” Trump explained. “I think people are going to know just out of common sense. At some point, we won’t have to do that. But until we feel safe, we’re going to be extending.”
The White House previously mentioned that the US may still be addressing the coronavirus crisis by the fall and winter. This is when the flu season emerges.
The government released the federal guidelines in mid-March. They extended them once and will expire at the end of April.
The White House gave no additional comments to CNBC regarding the president’s remarks.
Trump's administration imposes restrictions on regular activities, such as eating out at restaurants and socializing in groups.
Rising unemployment rate
Talks on the extension of the federal guidance emerge as Trump and state leaders more aggressively look into reopening the economy. The coronavirus crisis has hit the US economy hard, with its unemployment rate rising fast.
The US Department of Labor reported that an additional 4.4 million people sought financial relief by filing for unemployment benefits in the US in the week ending April 18 due to businesses being shut down because of the coronavirus crisis.
The surge in the number of submissions in the last five weeks was the highest since the department began tracking the data in 1967. The seasonally adjusted numbers recorded a total of 26.5 million initial claims filed since March 14.
Hawaii, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, has seen first time jobless claims filed by almost 26% of its March labor force over the past five weeks while in Kentucky and Michigan, around 24% of workers have filed for initial claims.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo claimed in a recent interview that they had to assign 1,000 people “just to take the incoming unemployment calls. That’s how high the volume is. And they still can’t keep up.”
Reopening economies
Trump previously said he wanted to see churches packed on Easter Sunday. Health experts criticized this statement.
On April 16, the government came up with a new list of recommendations on how state leaders can start reopening their economies.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that 16 states have presented “formal reopening plans” to ease their coronavirus restrictions.
William Bryan, an official with the Science and Technology division of the Department of Homeland Security, discussed recent findings showing that increased exposure to sunlight, heat, and humidity have a “powerful effect” on fighting the virus.
“The virus is dying at a much more rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just from exposure to humidity,” Bryan said.
However, according to a study published in medical journal The Lancet, coronavirus lockdowns must not be completely lifted worldwide until a vaccine for the disease has been developed.
