Trump says will set up new task force on ‘safety and reopening’

U.S. President Donald Trump indicated he will wind down the coronavirus task force and create a new team to focus on “safety and reopening” of the economy.

“Mike Pence and the task force have done a great job but we are now looking at a little bit of a different form and that form is safety and opening and we’ll have a different group probably set up for that,” Trump said in Arizona, referring to Vice President Pence.

“We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years.

“Will some people be affected? yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get it opened,” Trump added.

Trump said that while the advice for the elderly and ill would be to “stay back for a while,” other groups could return to work and school.

The president said he will continue to take advice from experts like Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key figure on the coronavirus task force who is widely trusted by the public.