As he prepares to unfurl plans to reopen the US economy, President Trump told senators on Thursday that he believes some areas of the country can reopen without widespread coronavirus testing.
Trump told Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on a call with senators that he agreed rural counties in Pennsylvania — with few confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no deaths — could see a limited reopening without mass testing.
In a different exchange, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) urged Trump not to reopen the country before there was broader testing capacity. Trump thanked Carper for the advice and quickly moved on.
The remarks were reported by numerous news outlets and two sources confirmed the exchanges to The Post.
Trump plans to roll out a framework for a phased reopening of the US economy at 6 p.m. Thursday at the White House — following a 3 p.m. call with governors.
Trump is heralding breakthroughs in the development of antibody tests and rapid testing to determine infections, but has bristled at the notion of a longer shutdown to allow for a ramp-up of testing capacity, as pushed by some business leaders and local officials.
Trump is pushing a speedy reopening in response to signs of economic devastation.
At least 17 million people — or about 10 percent of US workers — were fired, laid off or furloughed without pay during the first three weeks of the shutdown, according to unemployment insurance data released Thursday.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, 3.2 million Americans have been tested for the virus, of whom about 650,000 tested positive. About 31,000 US deaths are attributed to the outbreak.
“We have a very important press conference today at 6 o’clock,” Trump said at a Thursday afternoon event honoring truck drivers. “We’re going to be talking about guidelines that have been very carefully done, we’re speaking at 3 o’clock to the governors and we’ll be informing them and I think they’ll be very happy with what we are doing. They want to win this war and we’re going to win it and we’re going to win it very, very big and hopefully very soon.”
Trump faces potential resistance from governors and local officials, who were the ones responsible for ordering most businesses closed.