Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert RedfieldReuters

Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield today said he did recommend in February some states expand mitigation efforts to combat the coronavirus spread.

"As February 28 – as we got into March – we recognized the different areas that mitigation was now important," Redfiled told Today show host Savannah Guthrie. "CDC sent recommendations to Washington, to California, to New York and to Florida recommending that they expand mitigation in those areas."

"If you look back, in January and February, the cases we had in this country were all related to China travel," he said this morning. "It wasn't until February 28 when we saw our first community transmission where we said, 'wait a minute, where is this coming from?'

"So I think it's important when we get back, and when we get through this, we can look back at the timeline," he continued.

The White House announced the "15 days to slow the spread" plan in mid-March whereby the Trump Administration implemented social distancing guidelines, which included staying home except for necessary reasons, maintaining a 6-foot distance from people in public, and limiting gatherings to 10 people or less.

At the end of March when the 15 days were up, President Trump extended the guidelines for another 30 days.

The new end date for the guidelines is April 30.