‘Difficult decisions ahead’: Donald Trump raises the prospect of LIFTING the lockdown knowing people will get infected because ‘we can’t go on like this’ and ‘the cure cannot be worse than the disease’
The president’s words during his daily briefing Saturday raises the prospect of reopening businesses soon
‘We have to get back to work. We don’t want to be doing this for months and months and months’, he said
Trump said that ‘at a certain point some hard decisions are going to have to be made’ in terms of lockdown
He also reportedly told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that the football season will still begin in September in a conference call on Saturday as the president claimed we ‘have to open our country again’
But Dr Birx warned to avoid going to the grocery store or the pharmacy unless it is essential for two weeks
Cases of COVID-19 have increased by more than 100,000 in the past three days; the death toll tops 8,500
‘This will be probably the toughest week. There will be a lot of death’, Trump told reporters on Saturday
By LAUREN FRUEN
DAILYMAIL.COM
5 April 2020
Donald Trump has raised the prospect of lifting coronavirus lockdowns across the United States, arguing the nation cannot be ‘destroyed’ and ‘we have to get back to work’.
The president’s words during his daily briefing Saturday raise the prospect of reopening businesses and services knowing people will get infected.
Trump said: ‘We have to get back to work. We don’t want to be doing this for months and months and months.’
The president said reopening will be a ‘big decision’. He has previously argued the ‘cure cannot be worse than the problem.’
Speaking Saturday Trump added: ‘Mitigation does work, but again we’re not going to destroy our country. We have to get back. Because you know, at a certain point, you lose more people this way through all of the problems caused than you will with what we’re doing right now.
‘We went this extra period of time but I said it from the beginning the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. At a certain point some hard decisions are going to have to be made.’
Trump also reportedly told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that the football season will still begin in September in a conference call on Saturday as the president claimed we ‘have to open our country again’.
The president later tweeted a promise to Little League players that they will be back on the baseball field soon telling them to ‘hang in there’ after the league was halted in March.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States have increased by more than 100,000 in the past three days as the death toll topped 8,500 on Saturday.
New York City continues to be the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak where at least 2,624 people have lost their lives.
The country set a grim global record on Saturday with the number of deaths from coronavirus leaping by 1,497 in just one day.
The US’ epicenter for the outbreak is yet to reach its ‘apex’ but its hospitals and morgues are near breaking point already.
The president warned Saturday of the ‘toughest time’, telling reporters: ‘This will be probably the toughest week. There will be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death if this was not done.’
Trump had originally wanted to open up the country by Easter, but on Sunday decided to keep the federal social distancing policies in place through the end of April.
At the top of his mind had been whether the ‘cure’ – closing down all non-essential American businesses – was worse than the disease itself.
He still wrestled with that choice throughout Saturday’s briefing.
‘This country was not designed to be closed,’ he complained from the podium.
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