Surgeon General Jerome Adams said he expected the federal government’s social distancing guidelines to extend beyond the end of April.
The surgeon general’s comments came days after the Trump administration extended its 15-day initiative to “slow the spread” of the coronavirus through April. The guidelines advise Americans to avoid gatherings of 10 or more people and to limit time outside their homes.
Adams told Today on Wednesday that he believed the government would likely decide on another extension “in general” but may ease the guidelines in certain areas.
“In my opinion, I think that in 30 days, we will still be telling the country in general that you need to practice these measures,” Adams said. “But in 30 days, some places may not need to have a shelter in place anymore. So, again, we’ll start to ease this in 30 days, I think, in some places. But in other places, we’ll be ramping it up. We’ll follow the data, and we’ll go on based on what the data tells us.”
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He also noted that loosening restrictions may come at different times for different states, depending on how they’ve handled the pandemic and if they’re over the initial wave of infections.
The administration has been trying to flatten the curve and limit new cases of the coronavirus. During the White House’s coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, explained that current projections show 100,000 to 200,000 people are expected to die during the pandemic if full mitigation efforts are implemented. That number balloons to 1 to 2 million dead without the mitigation efforts.
