Trump Pushing To Lift Shelter In Place Order May 1, “I’m Going To Have To Make A Decision and I Hope To God That It’s The Right Decision”

According to John Hopkins, a private research university, more than 20,000 people have passed away due to COVID-19 in the United States.

The death toll increased to 20,389, passing Italy’s 19,468 reported deaths. Friday’s  2,000 deaths are the most reported deaths since the outbreak began. 783 of the reported deaths come from New York, pushing the state death toll to 8,627.

On a positive note, New York’s daily death count has slightly decreased, with 799 reported on Wednesday and 777 on Thursday.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state continues to flatten the curve and death are being stabilized, but stabilization is happening at a horrible rate.

“These are incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain, However, the number of hospitalizations appears to have plateaued.” Cuomo added, ”The hospitalization rate is also down, as are the number of intensive-care admissions.”

Dr. Chris Murray, the director at the University of Washington’s Health Metrics and Evaluation Institute, created the system the White House uses to gauge the peak of COVID-19 cases.

“We run the system every night, and the information from different states suggests different peaks in different states, but at the national level we seem to be pretty much close to the peak,” Dr. Murray said on Friday.

Dr. Murray system projects roughly 61,500 people will pass away from the virus by August if the social distancing order stays in play until the end of May. ”If states lift these rules by May 1, the numbers “don’t look good,” Dr. Murray said.

Health Experts across the country feels encouraged by the positive impact social distancing measures are having. But warn that reopening the country too quickly would be pushing the country back a few steps.

On Friday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator said, ”Every day we need to continue to do what we did yesterday, and the week before, and the week before that, because that’s what in the end is going to take us up across the peak and down the other side.”

A source tells CNN that White House officials are pushing to have the country reopened by May 1.

“I’m going to have to make a decision and I only hope to God that it’s the right decision,” Trump told the press on Friday. “But I would say without question it’s the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”

If shelter in place order is lifted, by May 1st, health officials believe there will be an increasing demand for ventilators and the country death toll could possibly hit 200,000, the New York Times reported.

CNN reached out to Health and Human Service for a comment on the Times report, but was told by a Health and Human spokesperson, “We do not comment on any alleged, leaked documents.”

Dr. Murray shared with CNN that if social distancing precautions were lifted by May 1, there is a great risk that cases would jump in the summer.

“If we were to stop at the national level May 1st, we’re seeing a return to almost where we are now sometime in July.” Dr. Murray added, “There’s a very substantial risk of a rebound if we don’t wait to the point where most transmission is near zero in each state.”