Trump says US may have passed virus peak
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that data suggested the country had passed the peak of novel coronavirus infections and that he would announce “new guidelines” for reopening the economy at a news conference on Thursday.
“The battle continues but the data suggests that the nation has passed the peak on new cases,” Trump said, adding: “While we must remain vigilant, it is clear that our aggressive strategy is working and very strongly working, I might add.”
The coronavirus death toll in the United States — the highest in the world — surged past 30,000 on Wednesday after doubling in a week. It had 639,664 reported cases as of Thursday, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University, also the highest number in the world.
The health crisis has also hammered the US economy. Trump has been pushing to reopen US businesses and end social distancing orders.
During the lockdown, millions of people in the US have lost their jobs and thousands of businesses have been forced to close their doors.
On Monday, Trump threatened to invoke his “total” power to force state governors to follow his directives on reopening. On Tuesday, he backpedaled, saying he was not going to put “any pressure” on governors to reopen.
At Wednesday’s briefing, he said again that some states will reopen sooner, even before the May 1 deadline.
After his move to stop funding the World Health Organization in the midst of the pandemic, Trump attacked the UN body again on Wednesday as losing trust and credibility in handing the crisis.
In response, the WHO said on Wednesday it regrets the US decision to halt funding to the organization and it was assessing the possible impact.
“We regret the decision of the president of the United States to order a halt in funding to the WHO,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual news conference from Geneva.
Tedros said that the WHO is reviewing the impact on its work of any withdrawal of US funding and will work with its partners to fill any financial gaps it faces to ensure its work continues uninterrupted.
The US is the largest fund contributor to the WHO, providing about $400 million a year, but some of its payments are in arrears.
The WHO director-general emphasized that his organization is not only fighting COVID-19, but also working to address a wide range of diseases and conditions such as polio, measles, malaria, Ebola, HIV, tuberculosis, malnutrition, cancer, diabetes and mental health. He said that the WHO also works with countries to strengthen health systems and improve access to lifesaving health service.
“Our commitment to public health, science and to serving all the people of the world without fear or favor remains absolute,” Tedros said, adding that the WHO’s mission and mandate are to work with all nations equally, without regard to the size of their populations or economies.
He reiterated that COVID-19 does not distinguish among rich nations and poor nations or large nations and small nations, nor does it distinguish among nationalities, ethnicities or ideologies. “When we are divided, the coronavirus exploits the cracks between us,” Tedros said.
Meanwhile, a US-China symposium on COVID-19 — Texas-Shanghai Experience — was held on Tuesday by Fudan University, Harris County Public Health and the Houston Public Health Authority, in which health experts from two sides shared experiences on containing the virus.
Wu Fan, leader of the Shanghai COVID-19 Task Force and vice-dean of Fudan Medical School, said Shanghai’s success in stopping the further spread of the virus came from detecting cases at the early stage, providing free and widely available tests, and conducting contacttracing of infected people.
Zhang Wenhong, another leader of the Shanghai COVID-19 Task Force and head of infectious diseases at Huashan Hospital, said: “We do everything we can for each patient. Tracing every cross contact is very important.”
Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Healthcare, said he was impressed by Shanghai’s ability to detect infections early and conducting effective contacttracing.
Edward Septimus, a professor at Harvard Medical School, said he was impressed by contact-tracing in China.
“If we have a second wave, we don’t have the diagnostic tests to test people, including a potential antibody test. We don’t have the ability to do contacttracing to identify individuals to quarantine and isolate. I think that’s the US challenge right now,” Septimus said.