The coronavirus pandemic continues its inexorable climb toward 2 million worldwide, as a polarizing debate over when to restart the economy added a new layer of tension to the U.S.’s ability to manage its still-surging infection count.

The center of gravity of the crisis has shifted decisively to the United States, where testing still lags other regions. Over the weekend, the world’s largest economy saw new COVID-19 diagnoses rise above 550,000, with its death toll topping 18,000.

However, the larger population of the U.S. means its number of deaths per capita is far lower than European hot zones like Italy or Spain, both of which have sustained heavy coronavirus casualties amid far smaller populations.

Nevertheless, a furious debate has emerged about whether and when the U.S. economy can get back to normal — and who has the power to do so — as the federal government races to spend vast sums of money to backstop consumers and businesses. Stocks retraced last week’s gains on Monday, as fears of a longer recovery rattled investors.

On Monday, President Donald Trump said on Twitter that the decision to jumpstart the economy rests with him alone, rather than the dozens of governors imposing a patchwork of dramatic social distancing measures, resulting in shuttered businesses that have thrown over 16 million out of work.

"It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

Yet the governors of California, Oregon and Washington are outlining plans to reopen their states at an appropriate yet undetermined time. The argument has taken on more salience as New York — the epicenter of America’s outbreak — sees a decline in new hospitalizations, even as casualties there continue to mount.

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday cited drops in intensive care admissions and intubations as reason to believe “the worst is over” in the face of a “horrific” death count of over 10,000.

"It has not overwhelmed the health care system,” Cuomo told reporters at his daily briefing. We have controlled the spread."

‘Striking a balance’

On Sunday night, the president retweeted a Twitter message that included the hashtag #FireFauci — stoking new speculation about a rift between Trump and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top infectious disease specialist and one of the most prominent members of Trump's coronavirus task force.

However, the White House on Monday denied a split between the two men.

"President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci,” a statement read.

“The president’s tweet clearly exposed media attempts to maliciously push a falsehood about his China decision in an attempt to rewrite history,” the White House said. “It was Democrats and the media who ignored Coronavirus choosing to focus on impeachment instead, and when they finally did comment on the virus it was to attack President Trump for taking bold decisive action to dave American lives by cutting off travel from China and Europe. Dr. Fauci has been and remains a trusted advisor to President Trump."

As criticism mounts on the World Health Organization’s ties to China, and its early role in failing to identify the seriousness of the outbreak, director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday waded into the debate over unfreezing economies.

In the WHO’s daily briefing, Ghebreyesus warned that countries “must strike a balance between measures that address the mortality caused by COVID-19, and by other diseases due to overwhelmed health systems, as well as the social economic impacts.”

He added that “control measures must be lifted slowly, and with control. It cannot happen all at once.”

South Korea, an area applauded for its aggressive efforts to bend the curve of new infections, is now grappling with nearly 100 recovered coronavirus patients seeing “reactivated” infections.

It adds a new dimension to the furor over when it will be safe for U.S. workers to return to their jobs, and have businesses open their doors again as unemployment figures surge and a deep recession looms.

“Since the 2008-2009 recession ended, the U.S. economy created 22 million jobs, and including our forecast for this week’s jobless claims, shows that the U.S. economy over the past four weeks lost 25 million jobs,” wrote Deutsche Bank chief economist Torsten Sløk in a research note to clients on Monday.

“A decade of job gains [have been] undone in just four weeks,” he added.

Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot told Yahoo Finance in an interview that demand for food banks has been “absolutely unprecedented. We expect at least 17 million additional people reaching out to us for help as a result of this crisis.”

[Click here for more of Yahoo Finance’s coronavirus coverage: Personal finance tips, news, policy, graphics & more from Yahoo Finance]

Javier David is an editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @TeflonGeek

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