President Trump on Sunday extended the national social distancing guidelines to April 30 in effort to keep the projected coronavirus death toll in the U.S. from reaching a catastrophic, worst-case scenario.
The president was pushing for lifting the social distancing guidelines before East, April 12th. Public health experts warned that loosening restrictions by Easter, would result in unnecessary death and economic damage.
Trump said his administration was extending the guidelines in order to avoid a major death toll. The president pointed to modeling that forecast 2.2 million deaths in the U.S. if drastic measures weren’t taken to mitigate the outbreak. Trump said the administration is working to keep the projected death toll below 100,000.
“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory has been won,” Trump said at an evening press briefing after suggesting that the coronavirus death rate would likely peak in two weeks. The president claimed Sunday that Easter was just an “aspiration” and he hopes the country will “be well on our way to recovery” by June 1.
Watch the press entire briefing:
LIVE: Press Briefing with Coronavirus Task Force https://t.co/io9HpU9q2o
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 29, 2020
