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House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., reacted on Sunday to President Trump’s statement the day before saying he is considering creating a second coronavirus task force focused on reopening America’s economy.
“We’ve never actually unplugged an entire economy and don’t forget it’s almost an entire global economy so clearly things have to happen,” Nunes said on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday.
Nunes then said that he thinks “one of the most important opportunities that we have as we look forward” is trying to get access to “that blood test that tests whether or not an American has had this [COVID-19] in the past so that we actually would know those of us that have been exposed to this because we know this virus is extremely contagious.”
He added, “What we know from the past is that there’s a lot of people who don’t show the symptoms. So one of the optimistic things that we have on the horizon here is the approval of the test where people could take blood tests, those people then could go back out in the workforce.”
When asked if he has any indication of how far America is from getting the economy back on track, Nunes said, “It’s really between what are the hot spots and what are not.”
“The president has been pretty clear that he wants the governors to decide and I think that’s best,” he continued, adding that deciding on the county or city level might be an even better idea.
He explained that letting “local politicians and the local doctors that are monitoring the situation on the ground” decide would be a good option.
As of Sunday, there were more than 371,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. with more than 9,000 deaths reported, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
California is one of the states with the most coronavirus cases reported with more than 13,900, following Michigan, New Jersey and New York, according to data compiled by Fox News.
Nunes who spoke from California on Sunday, noted that not everyone has stopped working during the new coronavirus outbreak.
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“I’m in an agricultural region and we can’t stop,” he said. “We have animals that have to eat. We have plants that have to be tended to so a lot of folks in the San Joaquin Valley, which is that big valley in the middle of California, our folks are going to work seven days a week, 24 hours a day to make sure that people have an abundant food supply in this country.”