President Trump announced that he is considering a plan to halt flights between coronavirus hot spots as more states issued orders to keep residents at home as they battle a pandemic that could kill almost a quarter of a million in the United States.
This week, he extended social distancing guidelines but, on Wednesday, said he was not ready to issue a national stay-at-home order.
The issue of air travel was raised earlier in the day by White House ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, who tweeted that flights were still operating from New York to places including Detroit and New Orleans.
“Does this make sense in terms of aggressive containment?” the South Carolina Republican asked.
Trump admitted the problem during his daily coronavirus briefing: “You have them going, in some cases, from hot spot to hot spot.”
Halting flights was an option, he said, but it would make it even more difficult for airlines to recover from the downturn.
“We’re certainly looking at it, but, once you do that, you really are clamping down an industry that is desperately needed,” he said.
Airlines have slashed their schedules as passengers stay home, and the president has imposed restrictions on almost all travelers from Europe and China, as well as most nonessential travel from Mexico and Canada.
Forecasts unveiled by advisers a day earlier showed that mitigation efforts, such as avoiding groups of more than 10 and restricting travel, were having an effect on the spread of the coronavirus. Models that suggested as many as 2.2 million people could die from COVID-19 now suggested the toll could be anything from 100,000 to 240,000.
The president repeated his message that everyone must do their bit to keep the numbers down.
“As I said yesterday, difficult days are ahead for our nation,” he said. “We’re going to have a couple of weeks, starting pretty much now but especially a few days from now, that are going to be horrific.”
He spoke just after the number of U.S. cases passed 200,000, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The death toll is more than 4,500.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the closure of all playgrounds in New York City to prevent young people congregating and called on police to get tougher in enforcing social distancing and halt the spread of disease.
Florida, Nevada, and Pennsylvania became the latest states to order all residents to stay at home except for essential business, joining much of the rest of the country on lockdown. Only five states have no standing order from their governor or local governments to keep people at home.
The piecemeal approach has intensified pressure on Trump to take further action, such as issuing a national stay-at-home order.
However, he said a one-size-fits-all approach would not work for different states.
“There are some states that don’t have much of a problem,” he said, citing the Midwest and Alaska.
“So, it’s really tough to say, ‘Close it down.’ We have to have a little bit of flexibility.
“Look, we’re helping governors. We’re really here to help governors.
“They’re the front line of attack.”
