Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT

US president Donald Trump will place more precious American lives in harm's way if he stubbornly hastens a reopening of the economy being shut down because of the deadly novel coronavirus. It is premature to do away with the ongoing strict social distancing measures which are proven effective in handling the wild spread of the virus, unless the country sees clear signals that each US state is able to restrict new daily infections below 100.

Trump earlier put the estimated virus death toll in the US at 100,000, which is truly a heart-wrenching figure. His administration ought to do all in its capacity to bring down the number, while definitely not rush to increase the number by gambling on a decision to restart the economy. 

Americans deserve his compassion, not his apathy. 

US conservative political groups, with the support of money-thirsty companies, keep lobbying for the Trump administration to accelerate the pace of restarting the economy.  Trump's reelection team, which is restless about his increasingly dimmer prospect amidst a deepening recession and skyrocketing layoffs, also wants an early reopening of the economy. 

But public health officials and the US state governors warn the White House that most of the country is not conducting enough testing to track the path and penetration of the killing pathogen, which by no means would allow American people to safely return to work in 10 days. 

The country should hunker down for at least one more month. 

It seems that Trump and his team are torn between the advice of his health officials, who have urged far great caution given the risk of mounting deaths, and the suggestions of his economic aids, who are eager to revive the economy and the US stock market.

Earlier, Americans and the world heard the US president boast the little-known virus was "under control" and it would "miraculously disappear" with little effort by his administration. Now, Trump has set up an advisory task force called "Opening Our Country Council" in order to start the economy - even without any vaccine or enough testing measures at hand. 

Facing the once-in-a-lifetime pathogen, a sobering caution is crucially needed rather than an impulsive knee-jerk decision to be taken by the government simply because hundreds of thousands of lives are on the line. 

Governments of France, Germany, the UK and India have all extended their nationwide lockdowns, because they haven't seen evidence of infection level-offs yet. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said bluntly that Indians' lives are more important than its economy. He got it right.

China was the first country caught and pummeled by the novel coronavirus, and the whole world got an eyeful of what the Chinese government had done in its painstaking efforts to contain its spread from Wuhan and Hubei. Till today, when the domestic cases have been controlled to a minimum nearing zero, the government cannot slacken and vows to keep its high alert.

In cities like Beijing and Shenzhen, most school rooms remain locked, public transit is being disinfected numerous times a day, and the office towers are sparsely manned, with many staying at home teleworking. 

Chinese people's extraordinary discretion is a mirror for other people. 

Currently, the coronavirus is gnawing the US with full force. In most of the US states, the contagion hasn't peaked. Infections in New York, Washington and New Jersey may be plateauing, but hotspots keep constantly shifting thanks to Trump administration's drowsy preparedness in January and February. The flawed testing kits by US CDC apparently aided the virus' invisible penetration among the US mainland. 

Epidemiologists are sounding a stern warning that a premature lift of the lockdowns will likely cause infections to rebound. The states of Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa and Minnesota are deemed most precarious to the virus, and susceptible to a policy reversal from the White House.

There is a benchmark to follow before jumping to an impromptu decision -analytical data and science. Currently, many US state governors are vehemently opposed to rushing to reopening the economy simply because medical experts and the data suggest it won't be safe to do so. 

Therefore, the time to pull back on social distancing hasn't arrived. Any move to diminish the strict virus-containing efforts will jeopardize public health by worsening its predicament. 

The author is an editor with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn