WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his coronavirus task force would shift its focus to reviving U.S. business and social life, while acknowledging that reopening the economy could put more lives at risk.
U.S. President Donald Trump listens to Honeywell’s Vice President of Integrated Supply Chain Tony Stallings as Stallings shows him a protective mask during a tour of Honeywell’s facility manufacturing face masks for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
In a series of tweets, Trump said the White House task force he formed in March would not wind down, as he had suggested on Tuesday, but would instead add some advisers and focus on “SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN.”
Trump changed his mind after the reaction to his Tuesday announcement showed how popular the task force was, he said.
Asked later if Americans will have to accept the idea that by reopening there will likely be more deaths, Trump told reporters: “You have to be warriors, we can’t keep our country closed down for years and we have to do something. Hopefully that won’t be the case, but it could very well be the case.”
The Republican Trump administration and many state governors of both parties have emphasized the political and social pressures they face getting the U.S. economy going again.
More than 71,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and more than 1.2 million people have been infected, according to a Reuters tally.
Trump’s Twitter comments drew swift criticism from the leading Democrat in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who