Over 85,500 Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus, surpassing the confirmed cases in China and Italy. State-by-state figures published late on Thursday revealed that the US had overtaken China and Italy in confirmed cases, with the biggest outbreaks occurring in New York, New Jersey, and California. The US has recorded 1,300 coronavirus deaths, trailing behind China with 3,291 and Italy with 8,215. President Trump attributed the increase in confirmed cases to the extensive testing being conducted.
“Number one, you don’t know what the numbers are in China. We are testing tremendous numbers of people.”
Vice-President Mike Pence also disclosed that coronavirus tests were now available in all 50 states and more than 552,000 tests had been conducted nationwide. President Trump had set a controversial goal of reopening the country by Easter Sunday, April 12, despite the 3.3 million Americans who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus. He emphasized the importance of practicing social distancing and proper hygiene even as the country begins to reopen.
“They [the American people] have to go back to work, our country has to go back, our country is based on that and I think it’s going to happen pretty quickly.”
“We may take sections of our country, we may take large sections of our country that aren’t so seriously affected and we may do it that way.”
“A lot of people misinterpret when I say go back – they’re going to be practising as much as you can social distancing, and washing your hands and not shaking hands and all of the things we talked about.”