Deaths from coronavirus in the US continue to rise.
US President Donald Trump has suggested he wants businesses to reopen and people to stop isolating “very soon”.
The suggestion flies in the face of advice of medical experts who say businesses need to close and workers stay home for several months in order to combat the spread of Covid-19.
“It’s bad, and obviously the numbers are going to increase with time and then they’re going to start to decrease,” the president said at his daily coronavirus press conference, before saying, “We’re going to be opening our country up for business because our country was meant to be open and working with others.”
Trump appeared to suggest he didn’t want the consequences of closing down the economy to be worse than the virus itself and said they would reevaluate the 15-day period of strict social distancing when it’s over.
“At a certain point we have to get open,” Trump said. “We have to get moving. We’re not going to let the cure be worse than the problem. At the end of the 15-day period, we’ll make a decision as to which way we want to go.”
On Monday, the US reported 100 deaths, the first time the daily death toll from Covid-19 reached three figures.
There are currently over 46,000 cases in the US with New York among the worst affected areas.
“Our country was not built to be shut down,” Trump said. “This is not a country that was built for this.”
When asked if they were looking at months or weeks to open up the country again, Trump said they will monitor the situation closely, but said he isn’t envisioning a lockdown lasting months.
“I’m not looking at months, I can tell you right now,” Trump said. “We’re going to be opening up our country, and we’re going to be watching certain areas… We’re going to be watching this very closely, but can’t keep it closed for the next, you know, for years.”
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