Donald Trump says ‘states should open up ASAP’ even as coronavirus death toll reaches more than 100,000

The United States is the hardest-hit country in the current coronavirus pandemic with over 1.7 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and more than ten thousand new infections recorded daily. However, President Donald Trump continues to push for the reopening of the country’s economy even as the death toll due to the virus already reaching more than a hundred thousand deaths.

Donald Trump expressed his desire to reopen the country for business once more in a recent social media post. “Stock Market up BIG, DOW crosses 25,000. S&P 500 over 3000,” the POTUS tweeted on Tuesday. “States should open up ASAP. The Transition to Greatness has started, ahead of schedule. There will be ups and downs, but next year will be one of the best ever!”

The tweet comes as the U.S. breached the hundred thousand mark in terms of coronavirus fatalities. Based on data from Worldometers, 100,269 have already died due to the pathogen in the U.S. as of May 26, 2020.

In addition, the number of new coronavirus infections in the country still remains high. There are 11,246 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. on Tuesday alone, which accounts for around a sixth of the 62,011 total new infections in the world on that day.

The World Health Organization also warned that a "second peak" in COVID-19 infections could arrive. The warning comes as American flouted social distancing rules over Memorial Day weekend as large crowds gathered at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri's St. Louis County for a party, according to ABC News.

“This reckless behavior endangers countless people and risks setting us back substantially from the progress we have made in slowing the spread of CVOD-19,” County Executive Dr. Sam Page said in a press release. “I encourage everyone to follow the Department of Public Health advisory to determine a safe path forward in the workplace.”

On Monday, Donald Trump threatened that the Republican National Committee might move its August convention to Florida if Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina does not ease the state’s coronavirus restrictions.

“The president wants to ensure that politics is not at play and determining how and when the convention can work,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany explained the reason behind Trump’s warning. “He wants to make sure a Democrat governor is not putting in place extraneous restrictions that would prohibit him from having the convention and holding it.”