Kudlow says coronavirus spike in some states could lead to shutdowns in certain places
The nation set a record high of new cases on Wednesday
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Thursday that a resurgence of coronavirus cases in some states could lead to targeted shutdowns in certain areas to slow the spread of the outbreak.
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"There are spikes in hot spots. There's no doubt about that," Kudlow told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo. "And there will be shutdowns in individual places or certain stores. We are keeping a very close eye on this."On Wednesday, the nation set a record high of new cases. Several states, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma notched their own records for daily infections this week.
"We're going to have to live with this from time to time," he said. "But that's a different matter than the whole country. We have seen case growth rates rise nationally just a little bit. Fatality rates, however, continue to go down."
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Kudlow's comments came on the heels of the latest jobless claims figures from the Labor Department, which showed that another 1.48 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That pushes the number of job losses since the shutdown began to around 47 million.
A surprisingly good May jobs report, which showed the nation's unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 13.3 percent from 14.7 percent last month, buoyed hopes for a so-called V-shaped recovery. But the sudden resurgence in cases has rattled markets, threatening to derail the nation's slow, but steady, recovery from the pandemic.
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Still, Kudlow maintained his projection of a faster economic rebound, estimating that unemployment will fall below 10 percent by the end of the year and that economic growth could surge to 20 percent in the third and fourth quarters.
"I think the strong V recovery is still right there," he said. "I'm pretty hopeful once we get the next set of jobs report, based on these weekly numbers."