Trump says 'we won't be closing down the country again' as coronavirus cases increase in at least 14 states

• Trump said "we won't be closing the country again" in a Fox News interview on Wednesday night.
• The president previously said the US wouldn't lock down if there were another surge of coronavirus infections.
• Around 14 states are reporting infections at rates outpacing the average number of administered tests, The New York Times reported.

President Donald Trump dismissed the need for another shutdown of the American economy as at least 14 states log record numbers of coronavirus infections in recent days.

"We won't be closing the country again. We won't have to do that," Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday evening.

Trump previously said at the end of May that the US wouldn't be locked down again if there were another surge in cases, arguing the country was in a position to "put out the fires." And in recent weeks, top administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, have swatted away calls for another lockdown.

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"We can't shut down the economy again," Mnuchin said in a CNBC interview. "I think we've learned that if you shut down the economy, you're going to create more damage."

At least 14 states are registering positive cases at rates outpacing the average number of administered tests, The New York Times reported, suggesting increased transmission of the virus. Cases are increasing in Florida, Texas, Oregon, and South Carolina, among others.

Over 115,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus so far, and around 800 new deaths are reported each day. That puts the US on track for a total of 200,000 deaths by the end of September.

The Trump administration has granted plenty of leeway to allow states to forge individual paths on easing public health restrictions and reopening their economies. But health experts say the first outbreak of the coronavirus is still ongoing.

"People keep talking about a second wave," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. "We're still in a first wave."

The pandemic plunged the US into its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Over 1.5 million people filed for unemployment for the week ending June 13, per the Labor Department. It's the 13th week in a row that filings for those benefits topped 1 million.