Closing indoor bars and getting almost everyone to wear masks in public is “really as good as turning it off” and will help stop the growing outbreaks of coronavirus across the country, a senior White House health official said Thursday.
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US Department of Health and Human Services ADM Brett P. Giroir testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the Trump Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, on Capitol Hill, Washington , DC, June 23, 2020.
“We are all concerned about the increase in cases we are currently seeing across the country and, as you know, more than 50% of those cases occur in four states: Arizona, Texas, Florida and California,” said Admiral Brett, Deputy Secretary of Health. Giroir told reporters on a conference call. “But we are seeing similar trends in several states, primarily in the Sun Belt.”
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“But the bottom line is that we know what to do to stop the current outbreak,” he added. “Now we have very, very good models that in warm areas, these red areas that have high cases, that have high percentages on the rise, it is very, very important to really close the interior bars.”
He said 50% to 70% of new cases go back to a single bar in some areas and “secondary spread from that.” He added that the same concerns also apply to indoor restaurants, and they should be operating at 25% of capacity.
“Being indoors, indoors, for long periods of time is just a recipe for spreading,” he said, adding that outdoor seating for restaurants and bars is “probably really safe.”
In “hot spots”, nearly 90% of people should wear masks “when interacting with other people” to control the spread, he said.
“If we have that degree of compliance with these simple measures, our models say that’s really as good as shutting it down,” he added. “These simple facts can really stop the outbreak without completely closing off your local area.”
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