Coronavirus: still more deaths but Trump dissolves his task force against the pandemic

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Despite an increasing record in the United States with more than 70,000 deaths linked to Covid-19, the team dedicated to the White House to coordinate the national response to the health crisis linked to the coronavirus will be dissolved, since the is set to begin reopening the economy, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday May 5.

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It is a new sign that the White House no longer wants to make coronavirus management its daily priority. The American president was visiting a mask manufacturing plant in Arizona when he announced it.

Earlier today Tuesday, Mike Pence had prepared the ground, he who is responsible for leading this "  task force  ". This working group is dedicated to coordinating medical institutes, elected officials and governors in the fight against the pandemic on American territory. The group also mobilizes medical experts to issue national recommendations on social distancing. The White House, Mike Pence told reporters, could hand over the job to federal agencies in late May.

"  Mike Pence and the task force did a great job, " said Donald Trump in Arizona. But we want to take a slightly different turn, that is to say focus on safety and openness , and we will probably have another group to do that.  "

" Safely  " reopening 

When asked if he considered the mission accomplished in the fight against the coronavirus, the president nevertheless replied: “  No, not at all. The mission is accomplished when it is finished.  "

What will happen to Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx , the president's two main medical experts, regularly present by his side during daily press briefings in the White House? They will continue to advise him, assured Donald Trump.

Is it a good time to dissolve the coronavirus working group? To this question from the journalists, the American president replied, concise: it is impossible "  to keep the country closed for the next five years  ". For Donald Trump, the main threat does not come from a deteriorating health situation, but from the complete closure of the economy. He wants more than anything to reopen "  safely  ", while conceding that some Americans will be "  hit hard  ".

135,000 probable deaths in early August

More than 70,000 people in the United States have died from contracting the coronavirus. It is the heaviest balance sheet in the world.

Donald Trump has admitted that there may be a new wave of the epidemic as U.S. states ease restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus, allowing for a gradual resumption of economic activity and social life. "  There will be a flame and we will put it out,  "
said the head of the White House.

Mike Pence said on Tuesday that the curve of new cases of contamination was on a positive path and that the United States could be in "  a very different situation by the end of May or the beginning of June  ".

However, an influential institute at the University of Washington revised upwards its projections for the fatal cases of the epidemic on Monday , saying it feared a toll of 135,000 deaths in early August, a number almost double its previous forecasts.

The Democratic opposition and some Republican elected officials have accused Donald Trump of minimizing the health risk and of encouraging states to initiate deconfinement. For his detractors, despite the deterioration of the health situation, the president wants at all costs to try to redress the economy in time to be re-elected to the presidential election next November.

► Listen: Coronavirus: Donald Trump cheats with tests

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