President Trump looking at plans to reopen the country

A glimmer of hope was given Wednesday by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

He said President Donald Trump is working on plans to eventually reopen the country.

The first step in slowly getting things back to normal: new guidance for critical workers who have been exposed to the virus to be able to go back to work.

Trump said they’ll start having meetings to reopen the country.

“It would be nice to be able to open with a big bang and open up our country,” he said.

Data is showing mitigation efforts are working.

“Remember this past weekend when we all of us got in front of this podium and mentioned that this was going to be a really bad week. At the same time, we were saying that we would hope we would start to see a little bit of a change in the daily hospitalizations, intensive care and intubations. And New York is starting to see that,” Fauci said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said the first step lies with essential workers.

“We’ve looked at the essential workforce and how to maintain that workforce, particularly at this time,” Redfield said.

He said workers who have come into contact with the virus but are asymptomatic will have to get their temperature taken, wear facemasks and are asked to still social distance when inside their work area.

Local businesses are happy about being a step closer to normal.

“We’re looking forward to working with our clients one on one again,” said Nino Magaddino, owner of Max Flex Fitness.

He said they’re already thinking ahead, and they’re going to keep virtual classes as an option even after reopening.

“If they don’t want to leave the office, we can work with them, but if they want to come to see us in person, they are more than welcome to.”

But he doesn’t want to get too ahead of ourselves. Vice President Mike Pence said we need to continue to follow the rules in place right now.

“We continue to see evidence of stabilization. That should be an encouragement to every American,” Pence said.

“An encouragement that we may — may be reaching a point where the impact of the coronavirus is beginning to level off.”

The White House coronavirus response coordinator had good news as well, saying models projecting American deaths from COVID-19 have dropped because Americans have drastically changed their behavior.