"But we're really not talking about treating a student who gets ill, but how the student will feel safe in going back to school", Fauci continued.

On Wednesday, President Trump said he was surprised by Dr. Fauci's stance on reopening schools.

This comes in the wake of what top medical expert on the White House's coronavirus taskforce Dr Anthony Fauci has said that coronavirus-related deaths could be more than what is being recorded as people die at home without going to the hospital.

"Some governors and some, perhaps, partisans, maybe for election reasons, don't want to have their states opened", Trump said. "No, it's a big number, but it's also a number that's at the lower scale", he said.

But as such guidance only serves as non-binding recommendations and ultimately leaves states' fates to governors, it has drawn growing criticism from public officials and health experts throughout the country.

Fauci also warned "even under the best of circumstances" there will be an increase in coronavirus cases.

Neither doctor has participated in White House briefings in recent weeks.

But one task force official argued to The Daily Beast that the death rate was a "far-lagging indicator" of the spread of the virus and was "not a real-time indicator of how the virus is affecting the population". But some states didn't meet these criteria before reopening either.

The US has the largest coronavirus outbreak in the world by far: 1.37 million infections and more than 82,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

A handful of U.S. states started easing their lockdowns about two weeks ago, ranging from shopping malls in Texas to beach hotels in SC to gyms in Wyoming.

Fauci has led the NIAID for more than 3 decades, advising the past five United States presidents on global health threats from the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s through to the current Zika virus outbreak. "What I'm talking about is we have a great testing capacity now".

It is unclear whether the plan indicates Washington's determination to assume a primary role in providing tests needed for the country to reopen, but the Pew poll suggests that Americans would certainly like to see the federal authorities taking more direct responsibility. "Each state has a full partner in the Trump Administration to make that happen", the White House said.

"Robust" is open to interpretation - the guidelines prioritise healthcare workers, but also recommend having the ability to test all people showing symptoms. "We have to get our country open".

A majority of states have begun a phased reopening approach.

During his testimony before a Senate committee on Tuesday, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, responded to a question from Sen. "Our country has got to get back and it's got to get back as soon as possible, and I don't consider our country coming back if the schools are closed", Trump said.