Foreign Desk Report
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has said the country will not close again as several US states reported new coronavirus cases on Wednesday.“We won’t be closing the country again. We won’t have to do that,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel.
Trump’s comments come after White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin both said the United States could not shut down the economy again. In a call with governors, Vice President Mike Pence encouraged them to repeat the administration’s claim that increased testing accounts for the spike in numbers, the New York Times has reported. The paper’s analysis found that positive cases outstripped the average number of administered tests in at least 14 states.
Restaurants, gyms, schools and other locations closed down in March as the country braced for the coronavirus, which has so far sickened 2.16 million Americans and killed nearly 118,000. Millions of Americans found themselves unemployed as a result of the pandemic. Trump had previously touted the strength of the economy, making it central to his re-election bid in November.
COVID-19 cases surge in Oklahoma, other statesSeveral US states including Oklahoma reported a surge in new coronavirus infections, days before a planned campaign rally for Trump in Tulsa that would be the nation’s largest indoor social gathering in three months. An uptick in coronavirus cases in many states over the past two weeks, along with rising COVID-19 hospitalisations, reflected a troubling national trend that has seen daily US infection numbers climbing after more than a month of declines.
Oklahoma reported a record 259 new cases over the previous 24 hours, while Florida reported more than 2,600 new cases and Arizona more than 1,800 the second-highest daily increases for those two states. In Arizona, where doctors, nurses and health administrators called for making face coverings mandatory statewide in public places, Governor Doug Ducey said he would let local officials decide whether to impose such rules and how to enforce them.
“If you do go out, wear a mask. It’s the smart thing to do,” he said. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego immediately tweeted that a vote on a proposed ordinance to require face masks outdoors in the nation’s fifth-largest city would go on the agenda for the city council’s next meeting.
