A top Trump economic advisor says 'there is no second wave' of coronavirus as cases surge in over a dozen states
- National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said there was "no second wave" of the coronavirus as cases surge in a dozen states.
- "There is no second wave. I don't know where that got started on Wall Street," he told Fox News.
- States like Florida, Nevada, and Texas are reporting increasing coronavirus caseloads.
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said on Friday "there is no second wave" of the coronavirus as cases climb in over a dozen states including Florida, Texas, Nevada, and North Carolina.
The top Trump administration economic official maintained that the federal government had the situation under control.
"There is no emergency. There is no second wave. I don't know where that got started on Wall Street," he told Fox News.
Conceding he is "not the health expert," Kudlow said he met with public health officials, who told him there is not another wave of the virus underway.
"They are saying there is no second spike. Let me repeat that. There is no second spike," Kudlow said.
He later added: "What you do have is certain spots are seeing a little bit of a jump up. Some small metropolitan areas are seeing it."
Kudlow's remarks come as cases of the virus surge after Memorial Day weekend in states that did not previously experience high infection rates and lockdowns continue easing. The US also surpassed two million recorded infections on Thursday — the highest reported amount in the world. Hospitalizations are climbing in at least nine states.
The prospect of another wave of infections prompted Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to say there wouldn't be another mass economic shutdown to curb the spread of infections.
"We can't shut down the economy again," Mnuchin said in a CNBC interview on Thursday. "I think we've learned that if you shut down the economy, you're going to create more damage."
The stock market went into a tailspin on Thursday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged over 1,800 points on renewed coronavirus fears.
Back in February, Kudlow said the US had contained the outbreak even as health experts warned of the virus's imminent spread.
"We have contained this. I won't say [it's] air-tight, but it's pretty close to air-tight," he said at the time.
Over the past four months, over 110,000 Americans died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Experts project the death toll to continue rising as between 800 and 1,000 people are still dying from the virus each day.