VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Donald Trump said on Monday (Mar 23) he is considering how to reopen the US economy when a 15-day shutdown ends next week, even as the highly contagious coronavirus is spreading rapidly and hospitals are bracing for a wave of virus-related deaths. Trump told reporters it was possible to resume economic activity in states with what he said were relatively low rates of infection, citing Nebraska, Idaho and Iowa as examples, while continuing to work on the hot zones in other states like New York.

"At the end of the 15th day in April, we’ll make decision as to which where we want to go, where we want to go to the timing and essentialy we’re referring to the timing of the opening, essentially the opening of our country because we have a pretty well shut down in order to get rid of this invisible enemy,"Trump told a White House news conference.

Trump, who had hoped to build his campaign for the Nov 3 election on a booming US economy, now is looking at hundreds if not thousands of deaths from COVID-19. Many of his Republican allies fear the toll on the economy would make it harder for him to win another four-year term. (CNA)