Trump says states should reopen as U.S. coronavirus outbreak shows signs of slowing

President Donald Trump said Monday that states should begin reopening their businesses as the coronavirus outbreak in parts of the United States shows its first signs of slowing.

“I really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states that are not opening,” Trump said during coronavirus briefing from the Bioprocess Innovation Center at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in Morrisville, North Carolina. “We’ll see what happens with them.”

On Sunday, Arizona reported a 13{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} drop in the seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases, logging 2,627 newly diagnosed cases over the previous 24 hours, down from 3,022 the previous week, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Cases in Texas have fallen almost 19{3c4481f38fc19dde56b7b1f4329b509c88239ba5565146922180ec5012de023f} over the previous week as of Sunday, while Florida has just begun seeing its curve of new cases start to flatten.

Trump touted the new data at the press briefing. “Over the weekend, cases in Florida, Texas and Arizona held steady and are now heading down. In Arizona, they are heading down and very substantially down,” he said.

While cases appear to be slowing, public health officials and infectious disease experts warn that reopening businesses too early could cause another resurgence in new Covid-19 cases. Early in the outbreak, U.S. cases peaked at around 30,000 new cases a day before falling and plateauing at roughly 20,000 new cases per day in mid-May. As some states began to reopen in late April through June, new cases began to surge with the U.S. now reporting more than 60,000 new cases a day. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.