Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday that shutting down the economy for a second time to combat the spread of Covid-19 isn’t a viable option and could cause even more headaches for Americans.
His comments came as Wall Street grew more concerned about a second wave of coronavirus cases in the United States. Texas has reported three consecutive days of record-breaking Covid-19 hospitalizations while nine California counties are reporting a spike in new cases or hospitalizations of confirmed cases, AP reported Wednesday.
“We can’t shut down the economy again. I think we’ve learned that if you shut down the economy, you’re going to create more damage,” Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer on “Squawk on the Street.” And not just economic damage, but there are other areas and we’ve talked about this: medical problems and everything else that get put on hold,” he added. “I think it was very prudent what the president did, but I think we’ve learned a lot.”