Trump: We're very close to completing a plan to open our country, hopefully even ahead of schedule

US President Donald Trump listened to top U.S. health expert Dr Anthony Fauci when he recommended that mitigation efforts be taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus. However, Trump is determined to open the economy at the earliest opportunity.

In the Presser taking place, Trump has stated, "we're very close to completing a plan to open our country, hopefully even ahead of schedule."

Fauci made the comments after saying in a separate interview that lives could have been saved if the country had shut down sooner during the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier, Trump retweeted a call to fire Fauci after that interview, but Reuters reports that the "White House said on Monday Trump did not intend to part ways with the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases."

In other comments coming through, Trump said we think the opec+ agreement will lead to a 20 million bpd cut in global oil production, repeating earlier news, more on that here: WTI: OPEC+ has not done enough and Trump knows it