Trump administration 'has no regrets' about pushing reopening as COVID-19 cases surge

Just a day after the United States recorded over 50,000 new coronavirus infections, US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has said on July 2 that government does not regret pushing for states to reopen. As per Johns Hopkins University tally, the recent spike in daily cases has been fourth record-breaking single-day toll in just over seven days and the total infections have surpassed 2.7 million with 128,740 deaths. 

In a press conference when Mnuchin was asked if he regretted White House mounting pressure on the US states to resume businesses despite constant warnings by the health experts, the US treasury secretary replied, “No, absolutely not”. The sudden surge in the COVID-19 cases in the country has raised concerns over state administrations and over 40 states have rolled back on opening and instead reimposed restrictions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus especially the southern and western parts of the country. 

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'Not going in right direction' 

Mnuchin's defense for the US President Donald Trump's administration came as country’s top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said that the US is ‘not going in the right direction’. While previously calling it a "dangerous week", in an interview with an international peer-reviewed general medical journal on July 2, Fauci noted that it is still possible to reopen businesses by the ‘use of public health measures’ even though coronavirus contagion in the US is not heading towards a positive direction.

“I think it’s pretty obvious that we are not going in the right direction,” Dr Anthony Fauci said.

But recently, amid the criticism over the US government’s handling of the public health crisis, Trump took to Twitter to say that it is a ‘great news’ for the numbers to rise because of COVID-19 testing being the best in the world. Donald Trump, in the same tweet, claimed that even though cases are spiking, the death rate is “going down”. 

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Image: AP