United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump will release guidelines on Thursday with steps to reopen the economy and return to normalcy.
Trump said the country appears to have “passed the peak” with regards to new infections of the coronavirus, during a Wednesday briefing at the Rose Garden outside the White House.
“While we must remain vigilant, it is clear that our aggressive strategy is working,” Trump said.
While states like California and New York have indicated that they want to reopen when possible, there is concern that a lack of testing capacity will hinder the process, because insufficient testing could lead to resurgent outbreaks and because people will lack confidence to resume their usual routines.
The shortage of coronavirus tests has plagued the U.S. response since the onset of the outbreak, though Trump has regularly downplayed the severity of the problem.
“The more testing, the more opening of the economy, but there’s not enough national capacity to do this.
“It is very hard to bring this to scale quickly and we need the federal government to be part of this,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at his own daily briefing.
New York is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., with at least 213,700 confirmed cases, more than any other country.
Health officials say some states may be able to reopen sooner than others, and certain restrictions on public gatherings, for example, will have to remain in place for some time.
Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti said large gatherings like concerts and major sporting events are unlikely in his city until 2021.
“Nothing I’ve heard would indicate that we’ll be in those large thousands of people gatherings anytime soon and probably not for the rest of this year,” Garcetti said in an interview with CNN.
Garcetti said that around five to 10 per cent of Los Angeles residents are expected to have contracted the novel coronavirus by fall, around September, meaning the city could still experience a large surge in infections.
Trump is looking to have the first relaxation of rules enacted even earlier than his most recently stated goal of May 1.
More than 16 million people in the U.S. have filed unemployment claims as a result of economic shutdowns to prevent the virus spread.
New weekly unemployment numbers will be released on Thursday, just hours ahead of Trump’s planned announcement on reopening, with millions more expected to join the ranks.
Health officials say citizens are largely abiding by social distancing rules and this is containing the outbreak, even as the absolute number of cases rises and the death toll mounts.
The U.S. is the hardest-hit nation in the world, with at least 619,600 confirmed cases and 27,760 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Trump said that deaths would also emerge as a result of people not working, citing concerns over depression.
Cuomo, meanwhile, said he would require people in the state to wear face coverings in public when they cannot maintain social distance of around 2 metres from others.
The order comes into effect over the weekend, indicating he is not yet convinced the state was out of the woods. New York was still in a “monumental public health crisis,” he said.
In encouraging news, hospitalisations and intubations were down and the “health situation has stabilised,” Cuomo said.
The governor said there had been 752 more virus-related deaths in a day, bringing the state’s official death toll to over 11,500.
The real number of fatalities is likely much higher, as Cuomo said the state would adjust its reporting to include victims who had not tested positive but are presumed to have succumbed to the virus.
Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to force the United States Congress to adjourn if the Senate did not confirm his nominees for vacant public offices.
Trump issued the threat during his daily news briefing on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic at the White House on Wednesday.
The president said he was frustrated that the lawmakers were not in Washington to confirm his nominees, including federal judges.
He said he would invoke his executive power to compel federal lawmakers to either return to Congress for urgent legislative business or adjourn formally.
The threat comes amid physical distancing orders across the country over the coronavirus pandemic.
Legislators in both chambers of Congress have been conducting pro forma sessions, and are not expected to return to the Capitol Hill until May 4.
Trump dismissed the pro forma sessions as “phony” and “a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis”.
He also accused them of “congressional obstruction”, arguing that confirming his nominees was not only critical but urgent at this time of the COVID-19 crisis.
The nominees, according to him, are needed to address challenges from the coronavirus crisis.
He said: “The Senate should either fulfill its duty and vote on my nominees or it should formally adjourn so I can make recess appointments.
“We have a tremendous number of people that have to come into government.
“And now more so than ever before because of the virus and the problem.
“The current practice of leaving town, while conducting phony pro forma sessions, is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis.”
According to Reuters, no U.S. president has ever used the authority, recognised by the Constitution, to adjourn both chambers of Congress if they cannot agree on a date to adjourn.
It was not clear if Congress’ current absence from Washington amounted to a failure to agree on an adjournment date.
Cheques going out to U.S. taxpayers as part of a stimulus programme designed to help workers suffering as a result of the coronavirus will have Trump’s name on them, an unprecedented decision he seemed to relish.
“I’m sure people will be very happy to get a big, fat, beautiful cheque and my name is on it,” Trump said during a briefing at the Rose Garden, outside the White House.
He said he did not know how his name ended up on the cheques.
“I don’t know too much about it,” he said.
The cheques are a one-time payout of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child, with a cap for high income earners.
People who had their bank accounts on record with the federal government for tax payments already began to receive direct deposits.
The president’s name is expected to appear not as the legal signature on the physical cheques, but in a separate area.
Similar cheques, such as tax refunds, go out through the Internal Revenue Service, which sits under the Treasury Department, and the signature is of the office holder of that section of government.
This will still be true of the stimulus payments.
