Politico | Trump White House plots break-up of coronavirus task force
- Pandemic response efforts will be handed over to federal agencies, US Vice-President Mike Pence says
- Trump has turned attention almost entirely toward reopening economy as more than some states ease Covid-19 restrictions
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Gabby Orr, Nancy Cook and Brianna Ehley on politico.com on May 5, 2020.
The White House is planning to wind down its coronavirus task force in the coming weeks as it shifts focus to reopening the economy.
The move is a more formal recognition of a strategy that has been developing in recent weeks. US President Donald Trump and his aides have been shifting their attention toward jolting the country's finances and speeding up vaccine development – even as the virus continues to spread to new areas of the country and the overall caseload climbs.
Efforts to mitigate the ongoing coronavirus outbreak will ultimately be shifted to agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Vice-President Mike Pence.