President Donald Trump has restated that the nation will not shut down again in an attempt to reverse a rise of novel coronavirus infections in some states and regions, saying to do so would “inflict more harm than it would prevent.”
“Lockdowns do not prevent infection in the future,” Trump said Monday at a White House coronavirus briefing. “They just don’t. It comes back many times. It comes back.”
Trump’s remarks come as the seven-day moving average of daily new infections has declined steadily since reaching a peak of 69,190 on July 25 and dropped below 60,000 Tuesday for the first time since July 11, according to worldometers.info.
However, some states have seen steady increases, such as Illinois, where the seven-day average has risen since June 18, when its was 602, to 1,574 on Tuesday. Massachusetts has seen its seven-day moving average climb from a post-spring low of 186 new cases on July 5 to 432 on Tuesday.
The average of daily deaths has remained flat at around 1,100 for the past five days. It reached a high of 2,256 on April 21 before falling to 521 on July 5 and then rising again.
“It’s important for all Americans to recognize that a permanent lockdown is not a viable path forward producing the result that you want or certainly not a viable path forward and would ultimately inflict more harm than it would prevent,” Trump said.
The president stated that the initial lockdowns, which overwhelmingly were imposed at the state and local level with executive orders banning indoor dining, shuttering gyms, salons and closing other “non-essential” businesses, were enacted to shield the medical community from being overrun and to allow time to develop treatments. He said the United States was doing “really well” on developing drugs and vaccines.
Trumps announcement came following a remark earlier Monday by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, who said some states – without identifying them – had seen a rise in the percentage of coronavirus tests that had come back positive.
“You may need to pause,” he said referring to the states. “You may need to drop back a little bit. I don’t think you necessarily have to revert to go all the way back to reclosing.”
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