Washington, Mar 24 (AFP) President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his push to relax the coronavirus lockdown in the United States, warning that the measures could "destroy" the country.

"A lot of people agree with me. Our country -- it's not built to shut down," he said on Fox News. "You can destroy a country this way by closing it down."

Trump says that starting next week he will "assess" whether to lift social distancing and quarantine measures in order to get the hobbled economy back on track.

"We can't lose a Boeing, we can't lose some of these companies," he said. "If we lose those companies we're talking about hundreds of thousands of jobs, millions of jobs." (AFP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)