Even as the Coronavirus death toll in the US nears the 33,000-mark, President Donald Trump gave guidelines to the governors on reopening state economies in the coming months.
The guidelines for “Opening up America Again” outline three phases in which states can gradually ease their lockdowns. Trump promised governors they would be handling the process themselves, with help from the federal government.
However, the process of restarting economic activity will begin only after states record a 14-day “downward trajectory” in their Coronavirus cases after each phase.
In phase one, the plan recommends strict social distancing for all people in public. Gatherings larger than 10 people are to be avoided and non-essential travel is discouraged.
In phase two, people are encouraged to maximise social distancing where possible and limit gatherings to no more than 50 people unless precautionary measures are taken. Travel could resume.
Phase three hopes for a return to normalcy for most Americans, with a focus on identification and isolation of any new infections.
“Based on the latest data, our team of experts now agrees that we can begin the next front in our war,” he told a news conference. “We are opening up our country.”
However, the recommendations are a far cry from Trump’s previous hopes for a sudden, widespread end to social distancing measures.
Instead Trump described a cautious approach in which state governors, not the White House, will take the lead — also a retreat for Trump who had insisted he could dictate the pace of reopening.
“Our approach will outline three phases in restoring our economic life,” he said. “We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time, and some states, they will be able to open up sooner than others.”
Some states, Donald Trump said, are already free from the impact of the Coronavirus and therefore can open “literally tomorrow.”
“We have large sections of the country, right now, that can think about opening,” he said.
If state governors “need to remain closed, we will allow them to do that. If they believe it is time to reopen, we will provide them the freedom and guidance to accomplish that task and very, very quickly, depending on what they want to do,” he said.
In the White House plan, presented to governors earlier in the day, Trump laid out the plan for getting people gradually back into public venues, but offered no timetable.
But even in the third phase, or what government scientist Deborah Birx called the “new normal,” the White House is recommending continued, long-term extra hygiene measures.
There will also be a focus on stamping out any resurgence.
“What’s key to this is early alerts and getting in there before they have a problem,” another top government scientist, Anthony Fauci, said.
Fauci said “the predominant and completely driving element” of the plan is “safety.”
“Light switch on and off is the exact opposite of what you see here,” he said.
The death count in the United States due to the novel Coronavirus reached 32,917 on Thursday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The toll as of 8.30 pm on Thursday marked an increase of 4,491 deaths in the past 24 hours, by far the highest daily toll in the pandemic so far.
The total number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 6,54,301 on Thursday.