Last Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he wants the country to get back back to normal by Easter, April 12, when he would love for churches to once again be filled with people.
“I would love to have the country opened up and raring to go by Easter,” Trump said in a Fox News interview.
However, that time frame does not correspond with the data suggesting that the public would still be at risk even after that.
Although Trump said he thought “it was a beautiful time,” he would heed the advice of the health care experts.
He said he is,
“continuing to evaluate the data, working with the task force, and making decisions based on the interests of our fantastic country.”
Top infectious disease expert Tony Fauci hinted that he has discussed a possible timeline with Trump prior to the White House briefing.
“You can look at the date, but you’ve got to be very flexible on it literally on a day by day, week by week basis,” he said. “You need to evaluate the feasibility of what you’re trying to do, “
A number of health officials and state leaders have warned against lifting restrictions prematurely, noting that it could put a heavy burden on hospitals and lead to an even more disastrous situation.
However, Trump said, according to him, the crisis will get worse if people continue to stay indoors.
“This cure is worse than the problem,” he said “in my opinion, more people are going to die if we allow this to continue.”
Meanwhile, strict guidelines were issued by the White House for people to follow. It was recommended that those traveling to New York should self-quarantine for two weeks if they recently left the area.
According to a White House official, Trump does not see Easter as a final date, but a date by which the economy is getting back on its feet again. That means that easing restrictions under these circumstances could begin much sooner. The focus is now on how to accomplish all this.
The president urged people to keep maintaining strong hygiene and social distancing to control the spread of the disease.
He also expressed his frustrations of the economic damage of having a large part of America staying home and compared the coronavirus to the flu.
“We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu, we don’t turn the country off every year,” he said.
The push for people to stay home is aimed at cutting off the spread of the virus and stopping the rise of new cases. Officials in Italy were too slow to take the proper actions in time, which arguably led to the world’s worst outbreak thus far.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Deputy chief medical officer Doctor Jenny Harries said that the peak of the virus could in fact be finished by Easter.
“What we hope is that in about two to three weeks, if people have continued to do as we have asked and cut down their social interactions, we would start to see a change in the slope of the graph.
“That means the peak will be pushed forward but the height of it will be lower and we can manage all those who need hospital and healthcare safely through our NHS,” she said.
Do you believe that the coronavirus crisis could get better by Easter?
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Sources: NBC News, The Telegraph
