President Donald Trump said Monday that the coronavirus infection could continue until July or August, citing conversations that he had received from health officials.
“People are talking about July, August, something like that, so it could be right in that period of time,” Trump said after meeting with his coronavirus task force on Monday. The president held a press briefing on Monday afternoon at the White House to discuss the updated government guidance to stop the spread of the virus.
The president urged Americans to stay in their homes except for essential travel, avoid social gatherings of over ten people, and close their schools for the next 15 days.
“It seems to me that if we do a really good job, we’ll not only hold the death down to a level that is much lower than the other way,” he said.
The president said that he was hoping for the disease to be completely gone by the summer: “We’ll see what happens, could be August, could be July.”
Trump said that the threat posed by the virus was real and that Americans should take it seriously.
“It’s bad. It’s bad,” he said, explaining to Americans what he was telling his own son, Barron. “But we’re going to be hoping for a best-case, rather than a worse case.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci clarified that the trajectory of the coronavirus outbreak would likely last until July but said the new federal guidelines regulating the behavior of the American people would be re-evaluated in 15 days.
Trump said that the White House was not considering a nationwide lockdown for the American people.
“At this moment, no we are not,” he said, in response to a question.
But the president added that there might be some “hotspot” locations infected by the virus that might have to be isolated.
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