The reopening of the U.S. economy after mass shutdowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic will have to happen at different times across the country based on conditions in each community, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said Monday.
“There’s no doubt that we have to reopen correctly,” Redfield said on NBC’s “Today” show when asked about a potential second wave of the outbreak.
“It’s going to be a step-by-step, gradual process. It’s got to be data driven, and as I said I think it will be community by community, county by county,” he added.
Redfield added that the social distancing measures put in place have been helping to lower the mortality rate in the U.S.
Some models of the virus estimated there could have been up to 1 million deaths in the U.S.
“I think the social distancing that the American people all embraced has really led to the reality that we see the overall mortality, while sadly still too high, was far less than we anticipated,” Redfield said. “So this has to be done very carefully.”
The U.S. has reported more than 557,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 22,116 deaths, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Public health experts have been warning that the reopening of the economy needs to be done gradually.
“It is not going to be a light switch,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Fauci said a rollback of some restrictions could possibly begin in certain areas next month.