Coronavirus US: ‘Social distancing will be with us through the summer’, Dr Birx says

Vice President Mike Pence suggests pandemic will be ‘largely behind’ US by June

Doctor Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has suggested that social distancing will need to remain in place in the US throughout the summer.

In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday Dr Birx was questioned about Vice President Mike Pence’s claim that the coronavirus outbreak would largely “be behind” the country by the end of May.

While the doctor prefaced that Mr Pence had made the initial suggestion based on new models and more extensive data, she firmly insisted that implementing necessary measures to stop the spread of the virus in the US were far from over.

“Social distancing will be with us through the summer to really ensure that we protect one another as we move through these phases,” Dr Birx said.

The conversation comes in light of Mr Pence’s suggestion that the epidemic would mostly be handled by memorial day weekend on Thursday.

“I think by Memorial Day Weekend we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us,” Mr Pence, who is chair of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, told Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera.

Dr Birx confirmed that more accurate data is allowing the government to track specific outbreaks in the US in more detail.

“Previously, we were using models based on data from around the world. Now we are very much tracking every single outbreak in the United States separately,” she said.

Birx confirmed that in some states such as Louisiana, Houston and Detroit are seeing a downturn in cases after reaching a peak in case, giving “great hope” in the consideration of other areas.

However, she maintained that social distancing would remain necessary much further into the year than Memorial Day.

A number of states are planning to begin the re-opening of non-essential businesses within their areas to begin restarting their economies amidst the pandemic.

By April, 12 states have not issued statewide stay-at-home orders and 12 states have not prevented the opening of ”nonessential” businesses.

When asked whether she would advise any of the states as to whether they should be re-opening or not Dr Birx replied: “each state is different”.

“There are areas of every state that are much more stable and much more spared this epidemic than other areas of states,” she said.

Dr Birx warned against an aggressive re-opening strategy, but governors would be “slowly turning up the dimmer” on measures within their own states.

The novel coronavirus has infected at least 965,000 people in the US as of Monday and caused over 54,000 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University.