Vice President Mike Pence stressed that rumors of a nationwide lockdown were completely unfounded and haven’t even been discussed among those in charge of managing the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
Speaking outside the White House on Tuesday, Pence answered Fox News viewers’ questions about the coronavirus outbreak. One person asked him about the possibility of a national “stay-at-home order.”
“I can tell you that at no point has the White House coronavirus task force discussed what some people call a nationwide lockdown. Or, as you described, a stay-at-home order,” the vice president responded.
Pence went over some of the directives that the federal government has issued regarding the crisis and emphasized that people should be practicing social distancing, avoiding nonessential travel, and staying out of groups of more than 10 people.
“We think we have the chance to significantly reduce the spread of the coronavirus and the threat that it presents to the most vulnerable among us,” he said, also noting that the administration stands behind states that have resorted to lockdown measures despite not considering a national quarantine.
“That being said, let me say, as states like California and Illinois, and of course New York, and elsewhere have taken strong measures,” he said. “President Trump and I and our team fully support the decisions by your state and local officials that may be stronger than this.”
Trump himself pushed back on the concept of a nationwide lockdown during a White House news conference last week, saying the U.S. was not considering a quarantine “at this moment.”
As of early Tuesday afternoon, more than 46,000 people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus, and 593 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
