Americans are ready for the nation to open back up, according to polls and President Donald Trump is planning to begin making that happen Thursday afternoon when it will announce guidelines.
He mentioned that new cases of coronavirus, are starting to decline throughout the New York metropolitan area, New Orleans, and in other areas. New cases in Detroit and Denver areas have flattened, he added.
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“The data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases,” he said. “These encouraging developments have put us in a strong position to finalize guidelines for states on reopening the country, which we will be announcing tomorrow.”
It will be announced at a news conference on Thursday afternoon, he said.
Trump also mentioned that preliminary data suggested people did have an immunological response to COVID-19 and had developed some protection during the outbreak.
Abbott Laboratories has developed an antibody test that will determine if someone has been previously infected with the coronavirus and potentially development immunity, he announced.
The coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has caused at least 133,572 deaths globally and infected over 2 million people as of Wednesday afternoon, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The numbers are considered to be inaccurate because of a lag in data collection by governments as well as significant underreporting of known cases and deaths by mainland China.
There are over 634,000 confirmed cases and 27,940 deaths in the United States, the data shows.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House pandemic response coordinator, reaffirmed that the cases are declining in many areas.
“We do have nine states that have less than a thousand cases and less than thirty new cases per day,” she said during the news briefing. “We see as a country we are improving. We see as metro areas we are improving. We see as communities, as counties and states, we’re improving.”
Different regions in the U.S. have a different situation, and the White House guidelines will be of a generalized nature, Birx said.
“The governors and each of these mayors will have to make decisions,” Birx said. “They can do what’s best for their communities. They are at the front line.”
–Wire Services
