[ad_1]
Media playback is not supported on your device
President Donald Trump says the United States has “passed the peak” of new Covid-19 cases and predicted that some states will reopen this month.
At the daily briefing on the White House virus, Trump said new reopening guidelines would be announced Thursday after speaking with governors.
“We will be the children back, all of us,” said the president. “We want to get our country back.”
The United States has almost 635,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and more than 28,000 deaths.
Media playback is not supported on your device
“The data suggests that across the country, we have passed the peak of new cases,” Trump told reporters at the Rose Garden on Wednesday.
“Hopefully that continues and that we continue to make great progress.”
The president said 3.3 million Covid-19 tests had been performed and antibody tests would be available soon.
These developments, he said, “place us in a strong position to finalize guidelines for reopening states.”
The Trump administration had previously pointed to May 1 as a possible date to reopen the nation, but the president said some states may return to normal before that.
“I think it will be a very exciting time,” he said.
- Why did the death toll in New York suddenly rise?
When asked about the dangers of reopening the nation too soon, Trump said: “There is also death involved in keeping it closed.”
He cited mental health problems, saying that suicide hotlines were “exploding” as the economy froze.
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs due to closure measures across the country, and unemployment figures are at record levels.
Media playback is not supported on your device
