The Trump administration is heartened by new data out of the European country that was hardest hit by the novel coronavirus.
Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday that the numbers out of Italy that suggest the disease may have hit its peak on Saturday.
“We’re looking at the Italy data. I think we’re — we’re encouraged over the last few days to watch the number of deaths starting to decline,” Birx said. “That will be our first indicator that what we put in place and what they put in place in Italy three weeks ago is starting to have — or two weeks ago is starting to have an impact now. Because deaths are a measure of what you did two and three weeks ago, not what you did now.”
Birx added that she has been impressed with the response from U.S. citizens who have sheltered at home in an effort to mitigate spreading the disease, which has shuttered events and economies around the world.
“I just want to really applaud all the American people who have taken this seriously and understand that although you may not be at the greatest risk, you’re protecting others who may be, and that’s why we have to be in this in solidarity,” Birx said.
On Sunday, Italy reported a decrease in the number of infected patients, as well as the number of dead. In the northern region of Lombardy, the region hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, top local health official Giulio Gallera said the area was “beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel” and warned it was still “not the time to sing victory.”
“Today is perhaps the first positive day we have had in this hard, very tough month,” Gallera said.
There have been almost 400,000 confirmed coronavirus cases around the world, and more than 100,000 have recovered from the illness, according to the latest reading from the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
