United States President Donald Trump has said that his government will not extend Covid-19 social distancing guidelines, scheduled to end on Thursday, AP reported. He also spoke of plans to hold massive rallies for the presidential elections in the next few months.
US has reported 60,207 Covid-19 deaths and more than 10 lakh cases, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University. The country accounts for around one-third of all confirmed cases across the world.
Trump added that he planned to resume out-of-state travel after spending over a month in the White House. “We’re going to start to move around and hopefully in the not-too-distant future, we’ll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other,” Trump said at a press briefing.
“I don’t want people to get used to this [social distancing],” Trump said. “I see the new normal being what it was three months ago.”
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Trump has repeatedly been accused of not doing enough or acting in time to prepare the United States for the outbreak. However, Trump said he did not expect the election to be a referendum on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The US president has blamed China for the spread of Covid-19. On Wednesday, he said that China’s handling of the coronavirus is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose the upcoming elections in November.
Last week, Trump had sparked a major controversy by suggesting that Covid-19 patients could be treated by “injecting” disinfectants into their bodies, drawing fierce criticism and warnings from medical experts in the country.
Covid-19 has infected 31.96 lakh people across the world and killed 2.27 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
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