Trump extends social distancing guidelines through end of April
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump retreated Sunday from his desire to relax coronavirus guidelines by Easter, announcing instead that all Americans must continue to avoid nonessential travel, going to work, eating at bars and restaurants, or gathering in groups of more than 10 for at least another month and perhaps until June.
The grim announcement, which the president made in the White House Rose Garden, came just a day before the end of a two-week period in which the world’s largest economy has largely shut down with staggering consequences:
Businesses shuttered, schools and colleges emptied, and social life all but suspended.
Trump said repeatedly last week that he hoped to end the need for such drastic actions soon, perhaps by Easter, on April 12, in the hopes of restarting the economy. But public health experts — including the president’s own advisers — had warned that trying to return to normal life too soon risked allowing the virus to rage, increasing the likelihood of more infections and raising the number of deaths.
The president finally appeared Sunday to get the message. Citing figures from his advisers that showed that as many as 200,000 people could die from the virus even if the country took aggressive action to slow its spread, Trump said the restrictions must continue, even if it meant more sacrifice in the days ahead.
“During this period, it’s very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines. Have to follow the guidelines,” Trump told reporters, with members of the government’s coronavirus task force nearby. “Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread.”
“We can expect that by June 1, we will be well on our way to recovery,” Trump said. “We think by June 1. A lot of great
things will be happening.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said he and other public health officials had urged Trump not to relax the guidelines too soon. Fauci — who in television appearances earlier in the day had offered the estimate of 200,000 dead — said Trump was affected by those predictions.
“The idea that we may have these many cases played a role in our decision in trying to make sure that we don’t do something prematurely and pull back when we should be pushing,” Fauci said. He said extending the guidelines until April 30 was a “wise and prudent decision” that Trump reached after discussions over several days with Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the effort to fight the virus, and other health officials.
“Dr. Birx and I spent a considerable amount of time going over all the data, why we felt this was a best choice for us, and the president accepted it,” Fauci said.
For weeks, Trump had compared the coronavirus to the flu, repeatedly suggesting that many more people die of the flu each year than would succumb to the virus. But Sunday, the president’s tone was different, more somber. He talked about “the viciousness” of the virus and said it had sent a friend to the hospital.
The president’s turnabout came as state and local officials across the country confronted rapidly rising numbers of infections that threatened to overwhelm their hospitals amid shortages of protective equipment and fears that there would not be enough doctors and nurses to tend to those who get sick.
Several of the nation’s governors said Sunday that they anticipated surges of cases during the next several weeks, and they urged their residents to continue to follow social distancing guidelines that would slow the spread of the pandemic.
“If we don’t flatten the curve, we’re on a trajectory currently to exceed our capacity in the New Orleans area for ventilators by about April the 4th, and all beds available in hospitals by about April the 10th,” Gov. John Bel Edwards, D-La., said on NBC’s Meet the Press program Sunday morning. “So we’re doing everything we can to surge capacity. It’s very difficult.”
Gov. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who has frequently clashed with the president, said before the president’s announcement that his state would not be ready to lift social distancing guidelines any time soon.
“Boy, I would not want to be responsible for opening the door to this virus to ravage our places that seem OK today, but, within 10 weeks, within 10 days, can be at full-scale burning through our hospital system,” Inslee said on CNN’s State of the Union program. “And we have seen this happen. We have got to be ahead of this curve.”
Over the past several days, Trump has lashed out at the governors, suggesting that some of them do not appreciate the help that they are getting from him and from others in the federal government.
Edwards and several other governors largely steered clear of responding to those criticisms by Trump. Instead, several of them stressed that they are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal agencies even as they pleaded for more help getting ventilators, surgical masks and other medical equipment they need.
Still, on Sunday, Trump once again targeted officials in New York for scorn, appearing to suggest that New York hospitals are hoarding — or doing something else improper — with protective gear like their surgical masks. He said that he did not believe they really need the increases in protective equipment they claim are necessary to protect doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients.
Trump said he was told demand for masks at a New York hospital jumped from 10,000 to 20,000 per week before the virus arrived to nearly 300,000 a week now.
“Something’s going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going — are they going out the back door?” Trump said. “Somebody should probably look into that because I just don’t see from a practical standpoint how that’s possible to go from that to that, and we have that happening in numerous places.”
Trump seemed to be suggesting that New York hospitals were lying about how many masks they needed. Trump said he was given the information about the increased demand for masks at the hospital from an executive of a company that makes masks who was sitting in the audience.
Speaking to him, Trump said: “I hope I didn’t get any of your clients in trouble. But it could be that they are in trouble. So they have to look at that in New York.”
Asked to elaborate on his allegation against the New York hospitals, he said, “I think people should check that because there’s something going on.” He added: “I don’t think it’s hoarding. I think it’s maybe worse than hoarding. But check it out. Check it out. I don’t know, I don’t know, I think that’s for other people to figure out, but you don’t go from numbers like that.”
In fact, hospitals throughout the country have said the surge in coronavirus patients requires that doctors and nurses change masks repeatedly throughout the day to protect themselves from getting infected. That has created a huge shortage of masks.