The White House coronavirus task force reported positive news on declining rates of new coronavirus cases around the country, as President Donald Trump trumpeted increasing testing capacity on the eve of his announcement of guidelines to begin reopening the U.S. economy.
"The battle continues, but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases," Trump announced at Wednesday's task force briefing in the White House Rose Garden. "These encouraging developments have put us in a very strong position to finalize guidelines on states for reopening the country.
"We'll be opening up some states – some states much sooner than others, and we think some states can actually open up before the deadline of May 1," he added. "I think that will be a very exciting time indeed. Governors are looking forward, they're champing at the bit to get going."
Amid optimism there are declining rates of infection across the U.S., task force testing expert Dr. Deborah Birx admitted the fatalities are still increasing – although the U.S. death rates are still better than most countries around the world, she said – but Dr. Anthony Fauci has contended deaths lag the confirmed cases by about two weeks.
Birx pointed to nine states which still have fewer than 1,000 confirm COVID-19 positive cases and are showing fewer than 30 new cases per day. Those are likely to be the first states to be opened and they include, according to Worldometers data: Nebraska, Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, Alaska, and Wyoming.
"Again, not all states are the same; they're very different," Trump said. "Some are having very little problem, some are doing such a good job, they have very little problems, and they're ready to go."
Trump will be meeting with U.S. governors about presidential guidelines on reopening and will hold a Thursday afternoon news conference to share the announcements.
Addressing questions about state-to-state travel as some might opening up soon, Trump said he is optimistic governors will be able to handle it effectively, as some have already been monitoring traffic in and out of their states.
"The governors can control that flow," he said. "As example, in fact, I just saw a little while ago it was reported that certain borders are being controlled already by states. They're starting to take control of their borders, which is good. They may do testing for people wanting to come in."
Increased testing capacity is a part of the equation, Trump said, announcing the U.S. has conducted more than 3.3 million coronavirus tests to date, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working to approve more companies' tests to increase the national capacity.
One company that has already released a point of service, 5- to 15-minute test, Abbott Laboratories, has been approved by the FDA for immunity tests that will bring a capacity of 20 million COVID-19 tests to the nation, according to Trump.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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