Hopes are slowly rising in the U.S. as the COVID-19 outbreak appears to be at a plateau or beginning to slow down in some places. 

Nine U.S. states on both the East and West coasts are planning a slow reopening of their economics and lifting their stay-at-home orders, Reuters reports. 

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will work with Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in coordinating a gradual reopening of each state's economies together, according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. 

Meanwhile, governors in California, Oregon and Washington state said they have reached an agreement on an approach to reopening their economies and state business - but gave no definite timeline in the matter. 

The U.S. death toll reached 21,662 on Monday, with more than 500,000 Americans with confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins. 

Meanwhile, the Trump White House denied it planned to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top exert on infectious diseases and a leading voice on the fight against the coronavirus, following his comments where he said lives could have been saved if the country had shut down sooner during the initial outbreak. 

President Trump had retweeted a message with the hashtag "time to #FireFauci."

Trump said at a Monday news conference that he didn't act earlier because no one had died in the U.S., and he said his timing was "very good."

The president also unveiled the team leading his reopening efforts, which includes, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow, Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

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