President Trump on Friday said U.S. mitigation efforts are paying off and the national death toll from the coronavirus should come in “substantially” below the 100,000 once feared.
He said he wouldn’t be happy with revised estimates of about 60,000 deaths, either, but “that’s a lot fewer than we were originally told and thinking.”
The coronavirus has infected nearly a half-million people in the U.S. and killed almost 18,000.
Mr. Trump said New York, the epicenter of the crisis, is still reeling from hundreds of deaths per day, but other metrics offer hope.
“The numbers of death, people that have died — it’s so horrible,” Mr. Trump said. “Now, on the other side, you have the number of beds being used are being substantially reduced.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported 777 new coronavirus-related deaths Friday, bringing the state total to 7,844, though the overnight deaths ticked slightly down after a string of several single-day highs.
“Overall, New York is flattening the curve,” Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said at his daily briefing on COVID-19 in his state, home to nearly 20 million people.
Elsewhere, Mr. Trump said the situations in hard-hit Detroit and New Orleans appear to be stabilizing.
“We’re seeing clear signs that our aggressive strategy is saving countless lives,” Mr. Trump said.
Deborah Birx, the U.S. coronavirus response coordinator, praised residents across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut for bending down the curve of transmission in the tri-state area.
Dr. Birx also said the task force is gleaning lessons from California and Washington state, whose early actions prevented the virus from spreading wildly.
The president has advised Americans to work and learn at home and avoid gatherings of 10 people or more until April 30.
Health experts have warned Mr. Trump, who is itching to rev up the economy, not to open up the country on May 1 unless transmission has been tamped down significantly.
“We’re not doing anything until we know this country is going to be healthy,” Mr. Trump said.
Though governors and local leaders are the ones who issued stay-at-home orders, Mr. Trump said he can override states. He said whether to recommend a May reopening is one of the biggest decisions he’s ever made to make.
“That’s my metrics,” he said, pointing to his head.
He also said he will “certainly listen” to doctors on his task force if the country does not appear ready by next month.
“I have tremendous respect for these people,” Mr. Trump said of Dr. Birx and Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases expert at the National Institutes of Health.
He praised them after a reporter noted that some of Mr. Trump’s media allies have denigrated the doctors.
Mr. Trump offered no support for the World Health Organization, however, saying the public health arm of the U.N. fell short in its response to the virus out of Wuhan, China. He said the U.S. will announce changes to its support for WHO next week.
Mr. Trump said the U.S. spends $300 million to $500 million on WHO, only to see it act in a “China-centric” way.
Moving forward, experts say a comprehensive system for testing people and tracking their contacts will be needed to open up the country, though Mr. Trump has downplayed the need for a national testing strategy.
“If there’s a little hot corner someplace, we’ll be testing,” Mr. Trump said.
In the near term, members of Mr. Trump’s coronavirus task force are pleading with Americans not to ease up on “social distancing” efforts and risk a second wave of infection.
They also want Americans to avoid risky behaviors.
“Avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs,” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said. “Call your friends and family. Check in on your mother. She wants to hear from you right now.”
Dr. Adams also said the administration is worried about the coronavirus’s impact on communities of color.
The task force is working on targeted outreach to minority communities to help them avoid COVID-19, he said.
Dr. Adams, who is black, stressed that black Americans are more likely to be harmed by COVID-19 because they suffer from underlying health conditions in high numbers. He said their plight must not be seen as some kind of personal failing.
Dr. Adams held up his own inhaler and said he wants young people with asthma to know that they, too, can grow up to become surgeon general.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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