News Desk :
Global death reached from coronavirus 2,29,182 with total cases 32,44,586 in 210 countries and territories while recovered 10,16,419, according to worldometer.
Death toll in the USA from coronavirus reached 61,680 as the country reported 10,64,836 confirmed cases.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday the federal government will not be extending its coronavirus social distancing guidelines once they expire Thursday, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, predicted that by July the country will be “really rocking again”.
To underscore his confidence, Trump said he plans to resume out-of-state travel after spending more than a month mostly cooped up in the White House, starting with a trip to Arizona next week. And he said he’s hoping to hold mass campaign rallies in the coming months with thousands of supporters, even though medical experts have said there is little hope of having a vaccine by then.
Putting a positive face on the latest grim numbers – the U.S. death toll has now surpassed American lives lost in the Vietnam War – Trump delivered his daily upbeat update and Kushner described the administration’s much-criticized response to the pandemic as “a great success story.”
Trump also talked up the good news the day provided: hopeful results for a possible COVID-19 treatment. But the government announced dismal new economic numbers as the pandemic took hold and shut down much of the country. The U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8% annual rate in first quarter of the year – a precursor to far grimmer reports that are expected this summer from the severe recession triggered by the pandemic.
The White House has been trying to pivot to a new stage of the crisis, focused on efforts to reopen the nation’s economy state-by-state amid concerns that lifting restrictions too quickly and without sufficient testing and contact tracing will spur a resurgence.
“We’re heartened that the worst of the pain and suffering is going to be behind us,” Trump said as he led a roundtable with executives from companies like Hilton and Toyota.
Trump laid out a vision of a return to pre-coronavirus normalcy – “with or without” a vaccine – with packed restaurants and filled stadiums. That vision flies in the face of sober assessments from doctors who say the country will need to embrace a “new normal” that includes extended social distancing and mask-wearing.
“I don’t want people to get used to this,” Trump told reporters. “I see the new normal being what it was three months ago.” White House spokesman Judd Deere tweeted that Trump would visit a Honeywell facility in Phoenix on Tuesday to highlight production of “critical medical equipment production and the addition of 500 manufacturing jobs in the state.”
Trump also said he was considering making a trip to Ohio, even as much of the country remains under effective lockdown with all but essential travel banned.
“We’re going to start to move around and hopefully in the not-too-distant future, we’ll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other,” he said, adding that having people spaced out in accordance with social distancing guidelines “wouldn’t look too good.”
He didn’t say exactly when he envisioned such rallies returning, but said the timing would depend, in part, on the states, since some have had far fewer cases than others. The federal government and most states have urged residents to avoid mass gatherings and to remain at least six feet apart.
The announcement came after Trump said he will not be extending the White House’s “30 Days to Slow the Spread” guidelines when they expire Thursday.
“They’ll be fading out because now the governors are doing it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he met with John Bel Edwards, the Democratic governor of Louisiana.
