US President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 7, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)
US President Donald Trump has claimed he will rebuild the economy, which has been shattered by the repercussions of his administration’s ineffective response to the new coronavirus pandemic.
Trump on Saturday night vowed to rebuild the US economy in honor of those who had lost their lives across the country due to the deadly flu-like pathogen.
"We’re going to rebuild it again in honor of all those who perished today," Trump said in an interview with Fox News, adding that he expects the economy to rebound like a "rocket ship" as a result of the American public’s desire to get back to work and a two-trillion-dollar coronavirus economic relief from the federal government.
"And I think the stimulus, coupled with this pent-up demand and everybody wanting to get out and go back to work," the US president underlined. "I think we’re going to have a just a tremendous surge."
Media reports speculated that the surging rate of unemployment in the US might reach near to the peak of 25 percent seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
In the last two weeks of March, more than 10 million Americans filled out request forms to receive unemployment salary after being laid off due the pandemic. Some economists are reportedly predicting that some 20 million jobs - or even more -- could be lost in the United States.
Trump went on to say that Americans have combated the coronavirus the "right way," and that the country would have experienced far greater numbers of deaths if it failed to observe the safety guidelines, such as social distancing.
"There were estimates, 2.2 million people. Well, if you cut that in more than half and you said a million and cut that in half. You say 500,000, it just would have been unacceptable," he added.
The latest updates showed on Sunday that the United States has recorded more than 20,000 fatalities since the coronavirus outbreak began, overtaking Italy as the country with the highest number of confirmed deaths.
According to the Johns Hopkins University count, so far 20,463 people have lost their lives across the United States compared with 19,468 in Italy.
The US with over 535,183 confirmed cases has the highest number, while Spain and Italy rank second and third with 166,019 and 152,271 cases respectively.
Public health experts have expressed alarm that the US death toll could reach 200,000 over the summer if stay-at-home directives were lifted as they are to expire at the end of April.
This is while Trump says he wants to reopen the country by next month despite concerns from both economists and health experts who assert that reopening the country prematurely could severely reverse some of the progress the country has made in battling the coronavirus.
US officials have warned Americans to expect alarming numbers of coronavirus deaths this week.
Moreover, the White House is seeking to deflect criticism of its own sluggish response to the COVID-19 crisis by putting too much emphasis on the virus’s likely origins in China, with Trump and other US officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, referring to the coronavirus as the "Chinese virus."
There have been more than 1.8 million confirmed cases of infection across the world, with the death toll topping 110,000 on Sunday.
SOURCE: PRESS TV
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/15772
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