Trump Hopes Country Will Be Reopened By Easter After Lockdown

WASHINGTON (AP) With lives and the economy hanging in the balance, President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is hoping the country will be reopened by Easter, as he weighs how to refine nationwide social-distancing guidelines to put some workers back on the job amid the coronavirus outbreak.

As many public health officials call for stricter, not looser restrictions on public interactions, Trump said he was already looking toward easing the advisories that have sidelined workers, shuttered schools and led to a widespread economic slowdown.

I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter, he said during a Fox News virtual town hall.

Trump on why he picked Easter as the day he wants to end strict social distancing and reopen American businesses: \"Easter is a very special day for me ... Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country.\" pic.twitter.com/6cXEtW8LmR

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Aaron Rupar","author_url":"https://twitter.com/atrupar","cache_age":86400,"description":"Trump on why he picked Easter as the day he wants to end strict social distancing and reopen American businesses: \"Easter is a very special day for me ... Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country.\" pic.twitter.com/6cXEtW8LmR Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_hide_thread":{"label":"Hide previous Tweet in conversation thread","value":true}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":675,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1242537632623624194/pu/img/EVhRwjrss3sigX-I.jpg","thumbnail_width":1200,"title":"Aaron Rupar on 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Trump on why he picked Easter as the day he wants to end strict social distancing and reopen American businesses: "Easter is a very special day for me ... Easter Sunday, and you'll have packed churches all over our country." pic.twitter.com/6cXEtW8LmR
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 24, 2020

Health experts have made clear that unless Americans continue to dramatically limit social interaction staying home from work and isolating themselves the number of infections will overwhelm the health care system, as it has in parts of Italy, leading to many more deaths. While the worst outbreaks are concentrated in certain parts of the country, such as New York, experts warn that the highly infectious disease is certain to spread.

The U.S. is now more than a week into an unprecedented 15-day effort to encourage all Americans to drastically scale back their public activities.

I gave it two weeks, Trump said during the virtual town hall from the Rose Garden. He argued that tens of thousands of Americans die from the seasonal flu or in automobile accidents and we dont turn the country off.

Well assess at that time and well give it some more time if we need a little more time, but we need to open this country up, he added. We have to go back to work, much sooner than people thought.

The reassessment comes as the White House is encouraging lawmakers on Capitol Hill to pass a roughly $2 trillion stimulus package to ease the financial pain for Americans and hard-hit industries.