'We will continue to make great progress,' says president
The U.S. has passed its peak on new coronavirus cases, the nation's president said Wednesday.
Speaking during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, Donald Trump said new cases are declining in the New York metropolitan area, the city of Houston, Texas and the city of New Orleans in Louisiana and cases in Detroit and the Denver metro area are flat.
"The battle continues, but the latest data suggests nationwide that the U.S. has passed the peak on new cases. Hopefully, that would continue and we will continue to make great progress," said Trump.
He also said Washington D.C., Baltimore, Maryland and Philadelphia are "showing great signs of progress."
"These encouraging developments have put us in a very strong position to finalize guidelines for states on reopening the country," said Trump.
The president said the new guidelines would be announced Thursday afternoon.
Nearly 28,000 people have died in the U.S. from the coronavirus, with almost 635,000 confirmed cases.
Globally, the virus has infected more than 2 million people and has claimed an excess of 133,000 lives, according to figures compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.
More than half a million have recovered.
