US President Donald Trump said that nationwide lockdown would create “more harm” than good, saying it is not an ideal move for the country.
His statement follows his previous comments that he would not call for a nationwide lockdown.
“It’s important for all Americans to recognize that a permanent lockdown is not a viable path forward producing the result that you want or certainly not a viable path forward and would ultimately inflict more harm than it would prevent,” Trump said during a White House briefing.
He explained that the US initially closed to not overwhelm hospitals and to allow health officials and scientists to learn more about the coronavirus, including developing vaccines to fight the virus. He added the US is doing “really well” on making coronavirus vaccines and treatments.
“Lockdowns do not prevent infection in the future. They just don’t. It comes back many times, it comes back,” Trump noted.
However, even if Trump said there would be no national lockdown, he called on Americans to remain “vigilant” against the coronavirus as US authorities start to witness new “flare-ups,” including in states like Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, and Oklahoma.
Trump noted there are 18 states that have recorded low coronavirus cases and positivity rates below 5%, including New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
“In our current phase, we must focus on protecting those at highest risk while allowing younger and healthier Americans to resume work and school with careful precautions. Ideally, we want to open those schools. We want to open them,” the president said.
State lawmakers, rather than the federal government, implemented restrictions on homes and businesses throughout the country’s coronavirus response. With social distancing rules affecting the US economy, Trump has pushed for the reopening of the country.
Trump said insisted he would not shut down the country if a second wave of coronavirus cases surfaced. The US will “put out the fires” as they emerge. In recent weeks Trump called for the reopening of in the fall regardless of the state of the Covid-19 outbreak. He said that keeping schools closed “is causing death also.”
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said that countries with increasing coronavirus cases might have to reimpose lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus, even those that were once successful when reopening. White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that some states should press the “reset button” and pause or roll back reopenings if cases rise.
Fauci reported an increase in the rate of coronavirus tests that have returned positive in some states outside of the southern region of the country. He said it is the same “insidious” rise that the Sun Belt region experienced a month or so ago before cases emerged.
He said states must take a “serious” reevaluation of where they are in terms of reopening. “You may need to pause, you may need to drop back a little bit. I don’t think you necessarily have to revert to go all the way back to reclosing,” he said.
