Trump administration eager to reopen country as total COVID-19 cases top 1.25 mln

As the total COVID-19 cases in the United States rose to over 1.25 million with a death toll of above 75,000 by Thursday evening, the Trump administration is pushing for a nationwide economic reopening despite concerns voiced by public health experts and local officials.

Detailed guidance created by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with step-by-step advice on how and when to reopen public places during the COVID-19 pandemic has been shelved by the Trump administration, according to a report of The Associated Press (AP) on Thursday.

The 17-page document, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen, according to the AP report.

It was supposed to be published Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance “would never see the light of day,” a CDC official was quoted by the report as saying, on the condition of anonymity.

The guidance, which the CDC first submitted to the White House in draft form two weeks ago, was meant to help states, local governments and businesses adopt measures that would help keep the virus from spreading once they reopened, such as using disposable utensils at restaurants, according to The New York Times.

“But several federal agencies, including the Department of Labor and the Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services, protested, saying it would be harmful to businesses and the economy and too prescriptive for houses of worship in particular,” the Times report quoted a federal official as saying.

President Trump expressed his desire to reopen the country’s economy on Thursday afternoon in a video posted on Twitter.

“People want our country to open up,” he said. “We want to do it in a safe way, we want to make sure safety, you know all about social distancing, and washing your hands, and all of the things that we are supposed to do.”

The president said that the U.S. economy is going to “come back very, very strong” and the recovery will be “a lot sooner than anybody could understand.”

Source: Xinhua