WHITE HOUSE – A national stay-at-home directive was rejected by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, but he said he might order airlines to stop flying between coronavirus hot spots.
“It’s very tough. You have them going from hot spot to hot spot,” said the president at a briefing for reporters at the White House. ”We are looking at it. Once you do that, you really are clamping down industry that is desperately in need.”
Trump said at one point during the news conference, “We do not give in to fear.”
The U.S. government is projecting that even if social distancing guidelines in effect are strictly adhered to in the weeks ahead, up to nearly a quarter of a million people in the country could die of COVID-19 infections.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States surged past 215,000 Wednesday, with deaths exceeding 5,000. More than 1,300 of the total fatalities were recorded in New York City.
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, said 391 people had died of the virus in the state since the previous day. He noted a projection by the Gates Foundation that the death toll would reach 16,000 in New York and 93,000 nationwide.
Cuomo expressed frustration that some people in New York City continue to ignore social distancing guidelines, and he said he wanted the city’s playgrounds shut down.
“How reckless and irresponsible and selfish for people not to do it on their own,” the governor said. “I mean, what else do you have to know? What else do you have to hear? Who else has to die for you to understand you have a responsibility in this?”
Florida, home to 21 million people, has become one of the latest states to be put under a stay-at-home order through the rest of April by its governor. Pennsylvania, Nevada and Mississippi also issued such orders Wednesday.
Some COVID-19 hot spots in other states, such as Louisiana, another Southern state, “are really exploding,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.
Asked by VOA whether the coronavirus task force headed by Vice President Mike Pence was halting aid shipments of personal protective equipment bound for foreign countries to ensure that the U.S. was not releasing critically needed items at home, Trump said there was “no truth whatsoever” to that.
“Why would I do that?” he remarked in reply.
