The White House is preparing for a second Covid-19 wave in the fall

The White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Sunday that the Donald Trump administration is preparing for the possibility that a second wave of coronavirus could hit the United States this fall. His comments come as several states are seeing increases in cases and New York City enters Phase 2 of its economic reopening.

“You prepare for what can possibly happen. I am not saying it is going to happen, but of course you prepare. We are doing everything we can beneath the surface, working as hard as we possibly can. I am not saying it is going to happen, but of course you prepare,” Navarro told CNN on Sunday.

Navarro’s comments come as Vice President Mike Pence has blamed the media for fueling concerns of a second wave of Covid-19, saying: “The media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a ‘second wave’ of the coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown.”

“Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy,” wrote Pence in the Wall Street Journal.

President Donald Trump was criticized for downplaying the virus’s threat and severity at the beginning of the pandemic and he even was pushing for states to reopen the economy as early as late April. Health experts have largely disputed the country is facing a second wave, as the U.S. has yet to move fully past the first wave of infections.