Donald Trump’s statement: US President Donald Trump while addressing the daily White House coronavirus briefing said “we are very close to a vaccine”, after noting vaccine trials taking place in the US, Germany, the United Kingdom and China.
He was joined by Vice-President Mike Pence and Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus taskforce co-ordinator, the BBC reported.
“We have a lot of great, brilliant minds working on this,” he(US President) said.
“Unfortunately we’re not very close to testing because when testing starts it takes a period of time, but we’ll get it done.”
According to Vice President Mike Pence, data continues to show promising signs of progress in the New York Metro area, New Jersey, Connecticut, Detroit and New Orleans all appear to be passed their peak and “we are seeing consistent declines” in hospitalization and cases in regions across the country. Pence heads the White House Task Force on Coronavirus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious diseases expert, had previously said that a vaccine will likely take 12-18 months to be approved for widespread use. Most health experts also agree that it would take at least 12-18 months before a vaccine is ready.
US Vice-President(Mike Pence) said that 4.93 million coronavirus tests have been completed across the US, adding that commercial labs surpassed 100,000 tests yesterday.
Pence also says that he is “encouraged” by states’ “phased approach” to reopening their economies. “We’re slowing the spread, protecting the most vulnerable, saving lives and every single day we are one day closer to opening up America again.
More than 95 percent of the country’s 330 million people are under stay-at-home order as a result of the social mitigation measures including social distancing being enforced till May 1. Trump on Thursday indicated that this might be extended beyond May 1, but forcefully advocated the need to gradually open up the economy that is safe.
