President Trump unveiled guidelines Thursday for “Opening Up America Again,” a task that many governors were already pursuing and that many more are likely to begin in a matter of days.
“I call it a beautiful puzzle. You have 50 pieces, all very different, but when it’s all done — it’s a mosaic — when it’s all done, I think you’re going to have a beautiful picture,” Trump said during the White House press briefing.
The federal guidelines are broken into three phases. The first phase tells employers to continue telework policies wherever possible and to minimize “nonessential” travel. People should still practice social distancing and stay away from large gatherings. The most vulnerable populations should still shelter in place.
In phase two, schools can reopen and elective surgeries can resume. Bars, gyms, restaurants, churches, and large venues can open as long as they abide by social distancing protocols such as maximizing distance from other people and avoiding groups of more than 10 people.
Finally, the third phase says bars, gyms, and large venues can open with limited social distancing measures in place as long as everything is properly sanitized.
Dr. Deborah Birx said the guidelines don’t include a timeline because governors and local officials should reopen their states at their own pace.
“We want governors, with the data that they have, community by community, to set those timelines,” Birx said.
Many states that have not experienced outbreaks as severe as those in New York and New Jersey could begin going through the stages of easing restrictions as early as Friday.
Trump said that a number of states, as many as 29, already met the first set of criteria for easing restrictions, namely that they are on a downward trajectory of virus symptoms and cases and have sufficient testing and hospital capacity. “They will be able to go literally tomorrow,” he said.
Some of the hardest-hit states have already extended stay-at-home orders through May, not wanting to risk a resurgence of the virus, but other governors have already been planning to ease restrictions by May.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum published guidelines Wednesday evening for reopening the state’s economy step-by-step, starting as early as May 1. Burgum said North Dakota needs to build a “robust” testing capacity and contact tracing infrastructure, boost the amount of personal protective equipment available to healthcare workers, improve hospital capacity, provide greater protection for the state’s most vulnerable populations, such as senior citizens, and make plans to address possible virus outbreaks in the future.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, also published protocols to follow in order to reopen the state without saying explicitly that his goal is to do so by May 1. Relaxing social distancing guidelines would be a gradual process as well. “There is no light switch here,” he said. “Think of it as a dimmer. It will toggle between less restrictive and more restrictive.”
Governors from Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Indiana announced Thursday that they will team up to devise a way for their states to reopen as soon as possible. Their four criteria for reopening are sustained control of the new infection and hospitalization rates, improved testing and tracing capabilities, increased hospital capacity in case of a resurgence, and established social distancing guidelines in the workplace.
Meanwhile, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont have all extended stay-at-home orders into the second week of May. Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia set his state’s order to carry to June 10.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday that the state’s stay-at-home order would remain in place until May 15 in coordination with other northeastern states.
“What happens after then? I don’t know,” Cuomo said during his daily press briefing Thursday. “We will see depending on what the data shows.”
Coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations in New York have nearly plateaued, according to Cuomo, but not enough to warrant reopening the state just yet. Deaths have declined daily since April 13, but the numbers are still high. On Wednesday alone, 606 New Yorkers died of COVID-19.
In Michigan, there are signs the public is chafing at the pandemic restrictions. Demonstrators surrounded the Capitol to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order that included a ban on in-state travel and more economic restrictions on businesses deemed “nonessential,” such as furniture and gardening stores. While Whitmer was giving her daily coronavirus press briefing, protesters from groups, such as the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the DeVos family-linked Michigan Freedom Fund, rallied from their cars outside, according to NBC News.
Driving the effort to find ways to ease restrictions is the tremendous economic damage inflicted by the virus. Over 21 million people have applied for unemployment benefits in the last four weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The coronavirus has led to nearly as many layoffs in the past month as the total number of job gains in the economic recovery that lasted from 2009 to 2020.
“That means over the past month, at least 13.25% of employed workers lost their jobs,” said Nick Bunker, a director of economic research at Indeed.com.
Over 11 million workers, a record high, now receive unemployment benefits, according to the Labor Department.
The current unemployment rate is 16% based upon the recent number of jobs lost, according to Ernie Tedeschi, a former economist for the Treasury Department.
