A former top Trump adviser says partial economic shutdowns may be needed as 'some places are too open'
- Kevin Hassett, former top economic adviser to President Donald Trump, said partial lockdowns could help contain the virus in parts of the US.
- "It does feel like there are some places are too open," he said in a CNN interview.
- Trump has repeatedly pushed states to reverse their lockdowns and downplayed the virus.
A former top economic adviser to President Donald Trump said during a CNN interview on Tuesday that more partial shutdowns could be needed in areas where coronavirus cases are surging and restrictions are too lax.
"There are places where positivity rate for the tests is above 20%, where the cases are expanding quickly; where basically everything that you saw in New York way back in March is happening," said Kevin Hassett, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. "So for me it does feel like there are some places are too open."
Hassett, who left the Trump administration in June, said he agreed with an assessment from Neel Kashkari, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
The Fed official said on Sunday that the economic recovery would be faster if the virus was contained, and called for a 4-6 week nationwide lockdown to ramp up testing and tracing efforts in the interim.
Asked whether another lockdown was needed, Hassett responded it "absolutely might make sense" in parts of the US.
As of Tuesday, there were over 4.7 million recorded cases of COVID-19 in the US and nearly 156,000 deaths. The US is reporting a seven-day average of over 60,000 new cases and 1,069 deaths a day, according to The New York Times.
The swelling number of cases over the past month led states to halt or reverse plans to reopen their economies, particularly in the South. Trump, however, has downplayed the virus and pushed states to reverse lockdowns implemented in March and April.
In an Axios interview that aired on Monday, the president said the coronavirus is "under control as much as you can control it," despite the surging number of Americans getting infected and hospitalized from the virus. He also dismissed the mounting death toll, saying "it is what it is."
Congressional Democrats and top administration officials are negotiating another stimulus package to arrest the economic fallout of the virus and add another round of health spending. Both sides are still far apart on a deal with a significant rift over boosted unemployment insurance.