President Trump on Thursday said places outside of the U.S. that were praised for their efforts to stamp out the coronavirus are seeing a resurgence, underscoring its wily nature and need to protect the vulnerable instead of shutting down again.
“Places where they thought they’d really done great,” Mr. Trump said. “It came back, and in a couple of cases came back very strongly.”
He said because of this, a long-term shutdown is not a viable strategy, after the U.S. closed much of its economy in March and April — only to see spikes again in certain states.
“It can come rearing back when you least expect it,” Mr. Trump said. “A permanent shutdown would no longer be the answer at all.”
Mr. Trump rattled off a list of countries, such as Australia and Japan, that are seeing spikes, and mentioned blue states where governors were praised for their responses, only to see an uptick.
Critics of the administration say the U.S. likely didn’t shut down deep enough early on or have enough surveillance through testing to get the disease to manageable levels. More than 150,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S., by far the most deaths of any country.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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