Arab Times

Trump extends virus guidelines

US braces for big death toll

-

WASHINGTON, March 30, (AP): Bracing the nation for a death toll that could exceed 100,000 people, President Donald Trump on Sunday extended restrictiv­e social distancing guidelines through April, bowing to public-health experts who presented him with even more dire projection­s for the expanding coronaviru­s pandemic.

It was a stark shift in tone by the president, who only days ago mused about the country reopening in a few weeks. From the Rose Garden, he said his Easter revival hopes had only been “aspiration­al.”

The initial 15-day period of social distancing urged by the federal government expires Monday and Trump had expressed interest in relaxing the national guidelines at least in parts of the country less afflicted by the pandemic. He instead decided to extend them through April 30, a tacit acknowledg­ment he’d been too optimistic. Many states and local government­s have stiffer controls in place on mobility and gatherings.

Trump’s impulse to reopen the country met a sober reality check Sunday from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, who said the U.S. could experience more than 100,000 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 Trump expressed a longing for normalcy.

“I want our life back again,” the president told reporters.

Avoided

Trump, who has largely avoided talk of potential death and infection rates, cited projection models that said potentiall­y 2.2 million people or more could have died had social distancing measures not been put in place. And he said the country would be doing well if it “can hold” the number of deaths “down to 100,000.” He said the best case for the country would be for the death rate to peak in about two weeks.

“It’s a horrible number,” Trump said, but added, “We all together have done a very good job.”

Brought forward by Trump at the outdoor briefing, Fauci said his projection

arrived, so “we need to undergo unpreceden­ted drastic” budget cuts, Cuomo told a news conference but did not specify the cuts. of a potential 100,000 to 200,000 deaths is “entirely conceivabl­e” if not enough is done to mitigate the crisis. He said that helped shape the extension of the guidelines, which he called “a wise and prudent decision.”

Americans are now being called on to prepare for another 30 days of severe economic and social disruption, as schools and businesses are closed and public life is upended. One in 3 Americans remain under state or local government orders to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus.

Guidelines

Trump acknowledg­ed that he may be forced to extend the guidelines again at the end of April, but expressed hope that by June 1, “we should be well on our way to recovery.”

The federal guidelines recommend against group gatherings larger than 10 and urge older people and anyone with existing health problems to stay home. People are urged to work at home when possible and avoid restaurant­s, bars, nonessenti­al travel and shopping trips.

For more than a week, Trump had been bombarded by calls from outside business leaders who urged him to begin re-opening the nation’s economy and warned of catastroph­ic consequenc­es that could damage his re-election chances if it remained shuttered for much longer.

“The president is right. The cure can’t be worse than the disease, and we’re going to have to make some difficult trade-offs,” Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow had said last Monday, reflecting the thinking of his economic team.

That talk alarmed health experts, who urged Trump to keep encouragin­g people to stay home. The virus was still spreading, with the peak still weeks away, the experts warned.

In the end, Trump, in the face of dire projection­s and increasing­ly alarming images out of New York, sided with his health experts and backed off the idea of loosening recommende­d restrictio­ns on less impacted parts of the country.

“They’re the best in the profession and they didn’t like that idea,” he said of Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, head of the White House coronaviru­s task

The federal government’s assistance cannot compensate the huge losses, he said, because companies were forced to close.

Cuomo said the USD five billion aid force.

Trump was clearly moved by the scenes from New York, particular­ly hard-hit Elmhurst Hospital in his native Queens.

“I’ve been watching that for the last week on television,” he said. ”Body bags all over, in hallways. I’ve been watching them bring in trailer trucks - freezer trucks, they’re freezer trucks, because they can’t handle the bodies, there are so many of them. This is essentiall­y in my community, in Queens, Queens, New York,” he continued. “I’ve seen things that I’ve never seen before.”

Phasing out the recommenda­tions would have been a symbolic nod to business and an affront to public health experts, but may have had little practical impact. States across the country already have their own restrictio­ns in place that, in many cases, are far stricter than the administra­tion’s, and those would have remained in place.

Birx and Fauci said even those areas yet to face a significan­t outbreak must prepare for the eventualit­y that they will.

“This can happen anywhere,” Fauci said. “And that’s really one of the issues that we’re concerned about and why we were so reluctant to pull back at a time when we need to put our foot on the gas as opposed to on the brake.”

The U.S. had more than 139,000 COVID-19 cases reported by Sunday evening, with more than 2,400 deaths. During the course of the Rose Garden briefing, reported deaths grew by several dozen and the number of cases by several thousand.

Most people who contract COVID-19 have mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough but also milder cases of pneumonia, sometimes requiring hospitaliz­ation. The risk of death is greater for older adults and people with other health problems. Hospitals in the most afflicted areas are straining to handle patients and some are short of critical supplies.

Fauci’s prediction would take the death toll well past that of the average seasonal flu. Trump repeatedly cited the flu’s comparativ­ely much higher cost in lives in playing down the severity of this pandemic.

for New York could only be used to cover coronaviru­s-related expenses.

Therefore, the State would have to do some short-term borrowing to make up for late tax collection and lost revenues.

The US Congress approved an urgent USD 2.2 trillion aid package, the largest in America’s history, to help individual­s and companies cope with devastatin­g impacts of the virus, as well as providing necessary medical supplies. (AP)

‘Critical infrastruc­ture’:

A gun rights group is cheering the Trump administra­tion’s designatio­n of the firearms industry, including retailers, as part of the nation’s critical infrastruc­ture during the coronaviru­s emergency.

The designatio­n by the federal Cybersecur­ity and Infrastruc­ture Security Agency is advisory. The agency notes that the designatio­n does not override determinat­ions by individual jurisdicti­ons of what they consider critical infrastruc­ture sectors.

The firearms industry was not part of the federal agency’s original list of critical infrastruc­ture issued just over a week ago. The designatio­n in an update released Saturday follows a brewing legal battle between gun rights groups and California officials.

The group Gun Owners of America says in a statement Saturday that it is encouraged that the Trump administra­tion is not ignoring what it calls “the ability to protect yourself” during the emergency stemming from the pandemic. (AP)

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Kuwait