U.S. states extend coronavirus shutdown, Trump unveils plan for return
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[April 17, 2020]
By Maria Caspani and Steve Holland
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York and six other
Northeastern states on Thursday extended coronavirus stay-at-home orders
to May 15, as President Donald Trump issued new federal guidelines for a
cautious reopening of the economy in keeping with advice from leading
public health authorities.
The president, who had pressed to restart idled businesses as early as
May 1 and had declared "total" authority to do so, settled instead for a
phased-in, science-based strategy, heeding warnings from
infectious-disease experts that easing social distancing too soon would
invite disaster.
"We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time," Trump
told reporters at a White House briefing where the plan was unveiled.
Trump's move to adopt recommendations, rather than orders, also averted
a looming confrontation with governors, many of them Democrats, who
insisted it was up to them to decide how and when to relax stay-at-home
orders they themselves had imposed since last month.
The governors have cited the apparent success of their directives in
curbing the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 33,000
Americans in a matter of weeks, while acknowledging the measures have
wreaked economic havoc.
At least 668,000 people to date have tested positive in the United
States for COVID-19, the highly contagious lung disease caused by the
novel coronavirus that emerged from China at the end of last year.
Lacking a vaccine to contain the pandemic, 42 of the 50 states have
ordered residents to remain indoors except for necessary outings, such
as grocery shopping or doctor's visits, while closing schools,
universities and non-essential businesses.
The unprecedented measures have stifled large swaths of the economy,
throwing some 22 million people out of work, upending financial markets
and leading to forecasts that America is headed for its deepest
recession since the economic collapse of the 1930s.
THREE PHASES
Trump, a Republican who had staked his November re-election bid on the
strength of the U.S. economy, had come under mounting pressure from
allies to forge ahead with a swift reopening, despite medical experts
who said doing so risked reigniting the outbreak just as it was being
brought under control.
The guidelines Trump unveiled at the White House after previewing them
in a video conference with governors call for a three-phase process of
restarting economic activity, but only after states record a 14-day
"downward trajectory" in their coronavirus cases after each phase.
The plan also recommends that hospitals institute a "robust testing
program" that includes antibody screenings for healthcare workers before
restrictions on businesses and social life are lifted.
The guidance says the recommendations are "implementable on a statewide
or county-by-county basis at governors' discretion."
In the first phase, public venues such as restaurants and movie theaters
could operate again with strict social distancing. Non-essential travel
can resume, schools can reopen, and sporting arenas can operate under
"moderate" physical distancing during phase two, while visits to nursing
homes and unrestricted staffing at businesses can resume during phase
three.
Some states with relatively few cases could begin phase one almost
immediately.
"They will be able to go literally tomorrow," Trump said at the
briefing.
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A message of "Thank You" is spelled in windows of a building for
healthcare workers across from NYU Langone Medical Center on 1st
Avenue in Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., April 16, 2020.
REUTERS/Mike Segar
Governors in a handful of states this week began talking about
reopening their economies as early as May 1, including North Dakota,
Ohio and Tennessee. Eighteen states have recorded fewer than 100
deaths from COVID-19.
Governors elsewhere began formulating their own plans. Seven East
Coast states that banded together in a regional pact - New York, New
Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts and Rhode
Island - said their restrictions would remain intact through the
middle of next month. Seven Midwestern governors and three on the
West Coast have announced similar pacts for coordinated reopenings.
FRONT LINES OVERWHELMED
New York ordered its extension even though the rate of new
hospitalizations and other key metrics point to an ebbing of the
outbreak, following weeks in which the healthcare network of New
York City, the nation's largest metropolis, was strained almost to
the breaking point.
The emergency room at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan has become
quieter in recent days but an onslaught continued in the intensive
care unit, where some patients had died while waiting for beds to
open up, one nurse told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"For 12 hours, you don't eat, you don't pee, you're just running
around putting out fires from one end of the unit to the other," she
said.
Public health experts say a major expansion of testing to determine
the full scope of the pandemic, track new infections and gauge the
extent of any "herd" immunity in the general population is necessary
before social distancing restrictions can safely be relaxed.
Trump's new guidelines make it clear that role is the responsibility
of state and local governments.
Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, said Trump's plan
accorded with his own guidelines for a phased approach and he
welcomed the president's recognition that state leaders have the
final say.
But the top Democrat on Capitol Hill, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the
U.S. House of Representatives, called the federal guidance "vague
and inconsistent," saying it "does nothing to make up for the
president's failure to listen to the scientists and produce and
distribute national rapid testing."
Even within states, urban areas have so far been hit harder than
rural areas, a divide that has inflamed political and social
divisions and prompted protests against state leaders who opted to
keep residents at home.
In Richmond, Virginia, about 30 people gathered outside the state
Capitol on Thursday in defiance of a stay-at-home order that the
Democratic governor has instituted until June 10.
"STOP the MADNESS! It's just a COLD VIRUS! End the shutdown for the
GOOD of US all!" one of the demonstrators' signs read. The state has
recorded nearly 7,000 cases and 208 deaths.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Makini Brice in Washington; Jessica
Resnick-Ault and Maria Caspani in New York; Lisa Shumaker in
Chicago; Nathan Layne in Connecticut, Seth Herald in Lansing;
Writing by Sonya Hepinstall and Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill
Tarrant and Daniel Wallis)
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