President Donald Trump says that the country will not shut down again if there’s a second wave of COVID-19 in the coming months.
“We are going to put out the fires. We’re not going to close the country. We can put out the fires.”
— President Donald Trump
Trump spoke Thursday at a Ford Motor Co. plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., which is now making ventilators.
Health officials have said that the risk of a second wave of the coronavirus is high, most likely when the normal flu season starts in late fall and early winter, again threatening to overwhelm the country’s health-care system.
But Trump on Thursday expressed confidence that any flare-ups would be contained. “Whether it’s an ember or a flame, we’re going to put it out. But we’re not closing our country,” he said.
Trump said he wore a face mask at the Ford plant, per the facility’s requirements, but he told reporters he did so just for part of his tour, and took the mask off before being seen by cameras. “I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” he said.
This article originally appeared on MarketWatch.
