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 The easing of sweeping restrictions in Georgia, South Carolina and
other mostly Southern U.S. states follows protests against rules
imposed during the pandemic that shut down businesses and largely
confined residents to their homes.
A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll showed a majority of Americans believed
stay-at-home orders should remain in place until public health
officials determine lifting them is safe, despite the damage to the
U.S. economy.
"It's a matter of concern, this whole idea of opening up. It's based
on non-science generated parameters," Dr. Boris Lushniak, dean of
the University of Maryland School of Public Health, told Reuters in
an interview.
Deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus,
topped 45,150 nationwide as cases climbed to over 810,000, according
to a Reuters tally.
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan each reported their highest
single-day coronavirus-related death tolls - over 800 between the
three states. New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak,
reported 481 new deaths.
Governors are under pressure from businesses and some constituents
to relax stay-at-home orders that have thrown over 20 million people
out of work in the past month alone.
In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers who filed a lawsuit against
Democratic Governor Tony Evers, challenging his stay-at-home order
that runs until May 26.
CDC WARNS OF FALL OUTBREAK
Tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, and
local officials have risen over the U.S. government's role in
ramping up testing, which infectious disease experts say is key to
enable a safe reopening.
Those experts say the United States, with a population of nearly 330
million people, should test 3 million per week to get an accurate
sense of the virus's reach. States have tested only a third of that
number in the past seven days, according to the Covid Tracking
Project.
Even as states move ahead with plans to reopen, the director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned a second wave of
the coronavirus could be worse if it coincides with the start of
seasonal flu season.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation
next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we
just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an
interview with The Washington Post.
Georgia is among a half dozen states that will allow more business
activity this week or next.
Brian Kemp, Georgia's Republican governor, will allow gyms, hair
salons, bowling alleys, tattoo and massage parlors to reopen on
Friday, followed by movie houses and restaurants next week.
Kemp said his plan balances public health with the need to reignite
the state's economy, saying social distancing rules would remain in
place.
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Georgia has reported 174,000 positive cases and six deaths per
100,000 people, both below the national average, according to a
Reuters analysis of data collected by the Covid Tracking Project.But
the state also has one of the lowest testing rates, giving health
officials less data on the reach of the illness to base decisions on
reopening, the data showed.
"Don't go out," Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, a Democrat, told
residents of the eastern Georgia city during a news conference.
"People will not come here if they think our businesses are not
safe."
CUOMO MEETS TRUMP
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo emerged from a meeting with Trump at
the White House and said the president had agreed to help his state
procure chemical reagents and other supplies needed to double
testing capacity.
Cuomo said it was up to his state to help labs boost their testing
capacity and to organize the workers needed to take more samples.
"That is an intelligent division of labor," Cuomo said at a press
briefing. "Let each level of government do what it does best."
The governor said New York would try to double the number of people
it tests each day - including diagnostic and antibody tests - to
40,000, characterizing the task as an "enormous undertaking" that
would take weeks.
Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of California, the most populous
U.S. state, said despite evidence the outbreak was slowing there,
cases and deaths were still rising.
Over the seven-day period ending on Sunday night, the number of
deaths in California nearly doubled, and the number of new cases
increased by nearly 50%, state data showed.
Newsom promised to release a detailed plan for testing and reopening
on Wednesday, but cautioned it was too soon to loosen public health
restrictions.
In Washington, D.C., the U.S. Senate unanimously approved $484
billion in additional coronavirus relief for the U.S. economy and
hospitals treating patients sickened by the pandemic, sending the
measure to the House of Representatives for final passage later this
week.
Graphic: Tracking the novel coronavirus in the U.S., https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-USA/0100B5K8423/index.html
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Andy Sullivan in Washington, Rich
McKay in Atlanta, Maria Caspani and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York
and Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Brendan O'Brien in Chicago,
Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles;
Writing by Grant McCool and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Bill Tarrant
and Lincoln Feast.)
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