OPENING TIME
Trump says latest coronavirus data suggests US has ‘passed the peak’ as he prepares guidelines to reopen economy
DONALD Trump said the latest coronavirus data suggests the US "passed the peak" Wednesday as he finalizes guidelines to reopen the economy.
During his , the president said America's "aggressive" strategy appeared to be working and that he would be announcing revised measures on Thursday.
Trump cited declining infection rates in the New York metro area, flattening cases in and , and "signs of progress" in Baltimore, Philadelphia and St Louis.
"Nationwide, we have passed the peak on new cases," he told reporters during his Rose Garden address. "Hopefully that will continue ... [It] puts us in a very strong position."
He confirmed the revised measures would be revealed tomorrow after touting his would reopen.
"It’s been a horrible time to see such death and destruction," Trump lamented after over 27,000 patients lost their lives in the US. "Especially when you come out of the best economy in the world."
But he vowed the flailing US economy would be propped up in no time, : "We’ll be the come back kids," he said.
Over 90 percent of the US population is now under emergency stay-at-home or shelter-in-place order to mitigate the spread of the deadly bug.
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19, prompting the Feds to issue .
Trump's comments come as the US epicenter New York confirmed another 752 fatalities overnight upping the death toll to over 11,500.
After NYC's data was rejigged to include "probable" cases, the five boroughs reported 10,899 COVID-19 deaths - 37 percent of which were deemed to be "probable."
"We are not out of the woods yet," Cuomo said hours before Trump's address.
"Coronavirus is still a monumental public health crisis and we are losing New Yorkers every day to this virus. Each New Yorker lost to COVID is a heartbreaking loss."
But in , residents in Lansing after .
Hundreds of protestors also marched outside the State Capitol to decry the social distancing measures and business closures ordered by Governor Andy Beshear.
There are currently 2,210 cases in the Bluegrass State with 115 COVID deaths.
This week, Trump has assured Americans many states are now in "very good shape" and some areas would be able to reopen before May 1.
"We'll start with states and with governors that have done a great job," the president said Wednesday. "They’re going to open it up as they see fit."
Earlier this week, he said "when somebody is the president of the , the authority is total [to reopen] and that’s the way it’s gotta be. Total, it’s total.”
"I would rather work with the states because I like going down to a local government," Trump clarified.
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"You don’t have somebody in saying 'set up a testing site in the parking lot of a Walmart," he added, a comparison he reiterated later in the week.
Most legal experts on both side of the political divide agree that Trump has no authority to compel states to act.
Tenth Amendment protections give states exclusive authority, a power not extended to the federal government by the Constitution.
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