The US should prepare for a lockdown of 18 months, warns senior Federal

Washington: Neel Tushar Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, warned ‘If a vaccine is not developed for Coronavirus in the next few months, recovery in the US economy will be challenging. Some tough decisions will have to be taken for this purpose. Therefore, the people of the United States will have to be prepared for a lockdown of 18 months.’ He stated that the people of the United States should be prepared that all the services except the essential services will be closed. Kashkari has made the US population aware of the grave situation in the future.

Kashkari, while talking to a US news channel, expressed concerns over the Coronavirus pandemic and the stress it has created in the US economy. It will be wrong to assume that the US economy will recover quickly from this economic stress. He claimed that till the time a vaccine is not found for Coronavirus; it will not be possible to turn the US economy around.

Kashkari warned ‘If the medical miracle of developing a vaccine for Coronavirus does not happen, the US economy will have to tread a prolonged and arduous path to recovery. This will be an 18-month journey, and the US people may face a lockdown during this period. The people of the United States have to be prepared for this.’ Kashkari demanded that the US Congress increase the aid announced for the small businesses. Last month, the US Congress announced an aid of USD 350 billion for this sector.

Neel Kashkari is a leader of the Republican party. A few hours before his warning, US President Donald Trump announced the opening of the US economy. Trump said that if the losses in the US economy are to be avoided, this step was necessary. Kashkari issued his warning following this. The US is under lockdown for the last three weeks. The unemployment figures have reached 1.6 million during this period. A few days ago, the medical officials from the United States had expressed a fear that the effects of the pandemic may last for nearly 18 months.

Meanwhile, President Trump had raised the baton of the shutdown after the US Congress rejected his proposal for the ‘Mexico Wall’. Before that, former President Barack Obama also had threatened a shutdown for implementation of his healthcare insurance scheme. During the shutdown period, funding to all the agencies, except the essential services, would be stopped. The essential services include defence forces, police, fire department and medical staff.