Alex Azar Confirms US Seeing No Spikes In Coronavirus Cases In Reopened States
While talking to CNN's State of the Union program, Azar noted that there haven't been reports of a spike in cases from places that are reopening. Places that continue to remain close, on the other hand, have surprisingly shown spikes in cases, Azar said, adding that identifying new cases is a time-consuming process.
Aside from carrying out testing of asymptomatic people, it is imperative to keep an eye on flu-like symptoms in the public and data from hospital admissions. In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Azar warned that it is still early to conclude getting the data from places that reopened will take some time. Georgia and Florida are among other states that reopened recently.
All fifty American states have allowed businesses to reopen in one way or the other, while residents have started moving more freely. There are only fourteen states, according to a Reuters analysis that has followed the federal government’s instruction for lifting restrictions that were put in place to combat the pandemic.
According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a top Democrat in Congress, it was near impossible to under the orientation of coronavirus without expanded testing. The deadly virus has claimed over 90,000 lives in the United States. In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” Pelosi said it wasn't easy to understand the size of the challenge because sufficient tests were not carried out.
The House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday, providing crucial suggestions for reopening the economy successfully including treatment, tracing, and testing, Pelosi said. The bill has been deemed dead on arrival in the Senate by the Republicans.
She suggests going forward in a bipartisan way in a bid to have a plan, noting that the nation didn't have a plan earlier. Pelosi says America needs to come up with a plan to test. As compared to other industrialized nations, the United States is behind in terms of coronavirus testing that has been touted as a crucial step to prevent more outbreaks.
Azar held the local governments responsible to handle the reopening plans, as restrained Americans begin to visit bars, parks, and beaches. These have been deemed as localized determinations by Azar, who insists there should be a customized reopening plan for each state because it is not health vs. the economic situation, but health vs. healthy scene.
Talking about a slew of recently surfaced images of some places of the United States where people have started gathering near bars and ignoring social distancing guidelines, Azar said that is exactly what the freedom costs. He noted that people are likely to act irresponsibly in any given instance.
He described these actions as a part of the freedom given to the people of America while talking on CNN.