President Trump says Feds Developing New Guidelines for Virus Risk

President Trump wants to determine which parts of the country are the safest.

He says federal officials are developing guidelines to rate counties by risk of virus spread.

President Trump wants to begin easing nationwide guidelines meant to stem the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter Thursday to the nation's governors, President Trump says the new guidelines are meant to enable state and local leaders to make “decisions about maintaining, increasing, or relaxing social distancing and other measures they have put in place.”

States would still have authority to set restrictions. President Trump says he will visit Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday to see off the USNS Comfort, the 1,000-bed hospital ship heading to New York.

(Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)