Trump extends social distancing guidelines
Third highest as disruption spreads
Jerusalem
President Donald Trump has defended his decision to extend restrictive social distancing guidelines until the end of April.
He also braced America for a coronavirus death toll that could exceed 100,000 people.
“The worst that could happen is you do it too early and all of a sudden it comes back,” Mr Trump said.
The comments came a day after Mr Trump made a dramatic course reversal and announced that he would not be moving to ease the guidelines and get the economy back up and running by Easter, as he said last week he hoped to do.
Mr Trump instead extended to April 30 the social distancing guidelines, which had been set to expire yesterday.
Many states and local governments already have stiffer controls in place on mobility and gatherings.
On Sunday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the US Government’s top infectious disease expert, said the
US could experience between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths and millions of infections from the pandemic.
That warning hardened a recognition in Washington that the struggle against the coronavirus will not be resolved quickly even as Mr Trump expressed a longing for normality.
“It would not have been a good idea to pull back at a time when you really need to be pressing your foot on the pedal as opus posed to on the brakes,” Dr Fauci said, describing how he and Dr Deborah Birx, the coronavirus task force coordinator, had convinced Mr Trump to reconsider.
“We showed him the data. He looked at the data. He got it right away,” Dr Fauci said.
“It was a pretty clear picture. Dr Debbie Birx and I went in to the Oval Office and leaned over the desk and said, ‘Here are the data. Take a look’. He just shook his head and said, ‘I guess we got to do it’.”
Americans are now being asked to prepare for at least another 30 days of severe economic and social disruption, with schools and businesses closed and public life is upended.
One in three Americans remain under state or local government orders to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus, and employment claims have already skyrocketed.
The federal guidelines recommend against group gatherings larger than 10 and urge older people and anyone with existing health problems to stay home.