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Dr. Ashish Jha predicts many places in US will be ready to reopen 'as we go further into May'

By Victor Garcia Fox News
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How and when can the US economy reopen following the pandemic? Video

How and when can the US economy reopen following the pandemic?

Researchers working on models to predict economy reopening; Harvard Global Health Institute director Dr. Ashish Jha weighs in.

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Harvard Global Health Institute director Dr. Ashish Jha joined "Bill Hemmer Reports" Wednesday to give his assessement of when the U.S. economy will and should reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.

"The number one issue in my mind about when to reopen is really about how do we reopen in a way that lets us stay open, "Jha said. "We could reopen tomorrow. But if we did, we'd have to shut down again very, very quickly. So what we need to see is substantially declining case rates.

THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK, STATE-BY-STATE

"Right now, we're flattening the curve," Jha added. "That's really good. But we've got to keep going. We've got to have a pretty broad testing infrastructure, we're not quite there yet. And then we've got to make sure our hospitals are ready because we're going to see surges in cases."

Although Jha expressed pessimism that the economy could begin to reopen May 1, he was optimistic that some loosening of restrictions could take place soon after.

"I think May 1 is going to be really hard for almost any state in the country to do. But as we go further into May, May 15, June 1, I think a lot more places are gonna be ready not just to open, but to stay open for a good period of time," Jha said.

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Jha also reacted to an Associated Press report that China held off on warning the world that the coronavirus was likely a pandemic for six crucial days in January, saying that while Beijing was partially to blame, "I think part of it is also on us."

"I think it's easy to blame China ... [but] even a week later, we still had enough time to get ready and we were slow ... to respond to this pandemic."