Donald Trump had to resign himself to backtrack, faced with the progression of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. He who hoped to announce in a few days an easing of the sanitary measures against the Covid-19, finally declared Sunday March 29 that he would extend until April 30 the governmental recommendations of social distancing.
He thus gives up the idea of starting the American economy by mid-April while the balance sheet of the pandemic has crossed 2,400 dead, or almost doubling in three days.
The United States is already the most affected country in the world with more than 141,000 cases of Covid-19 contamination, according to a Reuters count.
"The death rate is expected to peak in two weeks," added Donald Trump at a White House press conference.
US economic recovery estimated for June 1
Earlier on Saturday, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Diseases, estimated on CNN that the pandemic could kill 100,000 to 200,000 people in the United States.
Donald Trump's proposal to revive the economy by April 12, at Easter, has been widely criticized by state governors for an increasing number of new infections.
The governors of at least 21 states representing more than half of the 330 million people in the United States have so far warned people not to leave their homes and have closed non-essential businesses.
Asked at his press conference about the idea of lifting restrictions in mid-April, Donald Trump replied that it was a "mere wish" and that he now believed that the country could be on the road to recovery by June 1.
Lack of masks and respirators
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday reported 237 more deaths and 7,195 new cases of 24-hour contamination in his state, which now has more than 2,000 people in intensive care.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio said on CNN on Sunday that the city would need hundreds of additional artificial respirators in the coming days and masks, gloves and other medical equipment by April 5.
New Orleans will not have any more artificial respirators available around April 4 and the authorities of Louisiana still do not know if they will receive them from national stocks. Louisiana, on the other hand, tried to order 12,000 respirators from commercial companies and received 192.
In Michigan, one of the fastest growing coronavirus states today, particularly in Detroit County, the situation is alarming. "We have nurses who wear the same mask from the start to the end of their service, masks that are supposed to be used for a single patient at a specific time in our service. We need help and we are going to need thousands of respirators, "state governor Gretchen Whitmer alerted CNN.
Trump accuses hospitals of storing respirators
After meeting in the White House with business leaders, including from the medical sector, Donald Trump accused on Sunday, without providing evidence, of hospitals of building up supplies of artificial respirators instead of sharing them with other establishments .
"We have health care workers, hospitals (...) that store equipment, including respirators," said the President, who issued a decree on March 25 banning this practice.
With Reuters and AFP
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