President Donald Trump mulls over new economic plans as US faces coronavirus outbreak. He expects to get advice from the White House coronavirus task force this weekend about plans to “open the country up.”
The new guidelines on how to restart the economy may be released days after the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US exceeds China and Italy. US now has the record of the most coronavirus cases in the world.
“The president has made it clear, that in his words, he wants to open the country up. But we’re going to do that responsibly, and as the president told the governors today, we’ll do that based on the data,” said Pence, who leads the U.S. response to the outbreak.
Back by Easter Sunday
Trump also sent a letter to governors across the country stating his vision for the “next phase” in terms of reopening the economy. This plan had to be halted since several states have already placed severe restrictions in curbing the spread of COVID-19.
Trump explained that a new criteria will be developed to “help classify counties” by low, medium and high “risk” levels using “robust surveillance testing” that will help local governments to monitor the movement of the virus.
Trump previously suggested that areas in the country with low numbers of infections could reopen their businesses to reopen in just a few weeks. He also said he wants the US economy running again by Easter Sunday.
“People want to go back to work. I’m hearing it from everybody,” Trump said at the White House presser Thursday evening.
