White House Coronavirus Testing Czar Doesn’t Rule Out Increased Lockdowns: ‘Everything Should Be On the Table’

Admiral Brett Giroir, the Assistant Secretary for Health and White House coronavirus testing czar, declined to rule out the possibility that states will be go into an increased state of lockdown to counteract coronavirus resurgences around the country.

Giroir gave an interview to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday as President Donald Trump and his administration continue to push for a return to normalcy amid the ongoing pandemic. As Giroir spoke of how the country continues to deal with the pandemic, Stephanopoulos had him react to numerous states that saw Covid-19 spikes after taking steps to re-open.

“Is it time to consider more stringent lockdowns in those states?” The ABC host asked.

“You know, everything should be on the table,” Giroir answered. “Closing bars is an important thing, limiting the capacity of restaurants is an important thing. These are two measures that need to be done. They really do need to be done. Mask wearing in public. In order for us to reverse this problem, we need about 90% of people in those really hot areas to wear masks when they’re in public.”

Giroir went on to say “we’re not out of this at all,” though he also offered some positive news by saying the country has seen “a leveling of the percent positive.”

“That’s our first indicator that if that levels, we’ll start seeing emergency rooms drop, hospitalizations drop,” he said. “I’m not saying that’s gonna happen, but I’m saying the measures that we have right now indicate that we have a lot of cases right now, but the measures we’re doing may be putting a lid on that.”

Stephanopoulos went on by pressing Giroir about whether the death rate will jump if positivity levels plateau at a high point in hot states. Giroir answered that he expect hospitalizations to go up, but he argued that the mortality rate could decline since the country has months of experience treating the coronavirus now.

Giroir also took questions about the CDC’s guidelines for reopening schools, which he defended after Trump bashed them last week.

Watch above, via ABC.