President Donald Trump will not follow New Jersey coronavirus quarantine order because he is not a civilian, according to the White House.
Despite the new order for people visiting coronavirus-hit states like New Jersey, the Trump administration reiterated that the president will not change his plan to travel to the state this weekend. The new order of the governor requires visitors to quarantine for 14 days.
White House spokesman Judd Deere was asked about Trump observing the quarantine order for his trip to Arizona. "The president of the United States is not a civilian,” he said.
“Anyone who is in close proximity to him, including staff, guests, and press are tested for COVID-19 and confirmed to be negative,” Deere said in a statement.
“With regard to Arizona, the White House followed it’s COVID mitigation plan to ensure the President did not come into contact with anyone who was symptomatic or had not been tested,” the spokesman noted.
“Anyone traveling in support of the president this weekend will be closely monitored for symptoms and tested for COVID and therefore pose little to no risk to the local populations.”
The president will go to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. In his previous visits, he has flown on Air Force One to airports in Morristown and Newark.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced that visitors from states with huge numbers of coronavirus infections need to quarantine for two weeks or face fines.
“We worked very hard to get the viral transmission rate down. We don’t want to see it go up because a lot of people come into this region and they can literally bring the infection with them,” Cuomo said at a press conference.
“Because what happens in New York happens in New Jersey and happens in Connecticut,” he noted.
“This is the smart thing to do. We have taken our people ... through hell and back,” Murphy said during a conference call Wednesday.
Cuomo explained that coronavirus cases are increasing across 27 states in the U.S. “Nationally, we should admit the reality. Denial is not a life strategy. It never is. Those 27 states are going up. More people are being infected and more lives will be lost,” he said.
No more full lockdowns
Amid the rising number of coronavirus cases in different places, many analysts believe there will no longer be full lockdowns.
Suresh Tantia, senior investment strategist at Credit Suisse’s APAC CIO office, explained that the situation is unlikely to return to its condition in March. This was when the pace of virus cases began to spread in the US and Europe, following the emergence in China last December.
“The second wave of virus is a concern for investors… but I think the key difference is that unlike last time in March, this time it’s highly unlikely that we would see a shutdown of the global economy,” he said.
“If you look at the March selloff, the reason why markets sold off was not because of the virus concerns, it was mostly because the global economy shut down,” Tantia, speaking to CNBC, noted.
