"A risk for you is not just isolated to you, because if you get infected, you are part — innocently or inadvertently — of propagating a dynamic process of the pandemic," he said.

"If we want to end this outbreak — really end it, and then hopefully when a vaccine comes and puts a nail in the coffin — we've got to realize that we are part of the process."

The Washington Post on Friday reported that experts are considering "pool testing" patients, which would test groups of people at once, rather than a single test for each individual.

This method would allow for testing centers to conserve resources by testing multiple people at once. If a test of these clusters returned positive, then individuals from the group would be tested individually.

Friday's news conference caps off a month that included a relaunched travel schedule for President Trump as well as a rise in cases of COVID-19 — the disease caused by the coronavirus — in at least 20 states.

Public health experts have warned against large public gatherings such as the ones hosted recently by Trump, which many attended without wearing masks. But Pence insisted Friday that Americans have the right to choose to exercise their free speech and said they should keep in mind official guidelines and local case rates.

Pence has also recently restarted his travel schedule and plans to meet next week with governors and officials in Texas and Arizona to talk about the spikes in confirmed cases of the coronavirus in those states. Texas announced a "pause" to its reopening this week, with additional closures implemented on Friday.

"While you see in the news over the past week or so we have rising cases and outbreaks in several Southern states, I want to assure you that our task force and our entire administration is working continuously with leaders in those states to respond," Pence said Thursday.

Widespread protests against police brutality, sparked by the recent killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, have further increased concerns of the virus spreading.

To that point, the World Health Organization has said it "fully supports equality and the global movement against racism," and encouraged protesters to take all safety precautions to help limit the spread of the virus at demonstrations.

Copyright NPR 2021.