Most of the country will not be able to reopen on May 1, as health conditions will not be at a place where social distancing guidelines can be eased, Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned Friday.
"There are places around the country that have seen consistently low levels, and as we ramp up testing and can feel more confident that these places actually can do surveillance, and can do public health follow-up, some places will be able to think about opening on May 1," Adams said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "Most of the country will not, to be honest with you, but some will...that's how we will reopen the country, a place by place and bit by bit from the data."
There will be some places, though, that can think about reopening once the 30 days of guidelines set by the White House to mitigate the spread of coronavirus ends, said Adams. He also noted that he agrees with Dr. Anthony Fauci that even with some places flattening the curve of the disease, "now is the time to continue to lean" into social distancing.
"Dr. Fauci, Dr. (Deborah) Birx and I have said constantly (that) this will be different in different places," said Adams. "New York will look different and then California, New Orleans or Nebraska. We won't be able to say as a nation that a particular thing is happening but what's promising, it seems like we are hitting a peak in terms of deaths for the country."
Adams also commented on the testing controversy, noting that not everyone in the United States will end up being tested, as that is not done for any other disease.
"We do want to know what's going on in the community and we want to be able to test people that are high risk," said Adams. "We don't close down cities for tuberculosis. We understand which communities are having outbreaks and we put resources in those communities to be able to quell those outbreaks."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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