Trump: Birx to visit Oklahoma with targeted guidance

Dr. Deborah Bi rx, a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, will visit Oklahoma next week to provide“targeted” guidance to the state, President Donald Trump said Wednesday.

Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, will make the stop during a multistate tour, Trump said.

“Next week, Dr. Birx will visit Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas … to deliver aggressive, tailored and targeted guidance,” Trump said at a news conference.

“The strategy we' re taking to these states will protect those at highest risk while allowing others at a lower risk to safely resume work and school. If we do this successfully, it can be really something incredible because we're talking about a lot of states.”

Birx is one of the most visible members of the White House task force, appearing regularly on news programs.

On CNN on Sunday, she said the pandemic had entered a new phase.

“What we are seeing today is different from March and April,” she said. “It is extraordinarily widespread ... it's more widespread and it's both rural and urban.”

Oklahoma added 1,101 new cases on Wednesday and 17 deaths. The state has now had 40,564 cases, representing a little more than 1% of the population.

The announcement of her visit came a week after a special U.S. House subcommittee said Gov. Kevin Stitt's administration had ignored most of the recommendations made by the White House task force. The Republican governor said the subcommittee, which is headed by Democrats, was partisan.