Divisions are growing in the U.S. between some governors and mayors over reopening their states as COVID-19's toll in both lives and jobs grows, leaving leaders torn between dueling demands to prevent more outbreaks and revive the economy.
Leading the way to lift restrictions, with encouragement from President Donald Trump, six Republican governors across the South _ Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi _ have formed a coalition to coordinate reopenings, according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who earlier opened beaches in his state.
In Georgia, however, mayors have resisted Gov. Brian Kemp's call to open salons and bowling alleys this week as long as employees and customers take social distancing measures. Savannah's mayor called the plan "reckless."
In South Carolina, furniture stores, beaches and other businesses are open even as the Charleston mayor has expressed concerns that the state still doesn't have access to enough testing to know that such renewed activity is safe.
During a tree planting ceremony Wednesday on the White House South Lawn to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Trump hailed the "spirit" of the states starting to open, saying the country would be "bigger, better, stronger than ever before."
Even as some states take steps to resume a semblance of normal life, recent polls have shown a sizable majority of Americans believe the restrictions are proper and should stay. A new survey released Wednesday by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found 61% of Americans believe restrictions in their areas are appropriate, and 26% said the limits don't go far enough. Only 12% said limits had gone too far.
The president has said he will be proven right on the nation's ability to test and reopen soon. The federal government will help states ramp up testing, Trump has said, yet he repeatedly has insisted that it is their responsibility.
Many governors have clashed with him over the difficulty of acquiring testing supplies, including Republican Larry Hogan of Maryland. Hogan and his Korean American wife worked directly with South Korea to import 500,000 tests for his state, and took steps to prevent federal officials from confiscating the supplies to distribute elsewhere.
Many of the states opening up, including Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, underperform others in testing and have not seen decreases in new cases over 14 straight days, the metric that the White House this week recommended as a threshold for safe reopenings.
Still, the states are faring better than in previous weeks, and cities including New York, the pandemic's epicenter, Detroit and New Orleans have made strides in containing the virus.
Yet the lack of coordination at the federal level has led to the debate and patchwork of conflicting actions between states and cities.
As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott this week eased restrictions statewide, county leaders in Houston planned to require the area's 4.7 million residents to wear masks in public starting as early as Wednesday. Abbott allowed the reopening of state parks, elective surgeries and curbside pickups at certain stores.
Perhaps the loudest resistance to continued shutdowns came Wednesday from Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who in a CNN interview called for the immediate reopening of hotels and casinos in the city. "I'd love everything open. ... We've had viruses for years," said Goodman, who called the closings "total insanity." Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak said the state will move at a slower pace, describing its current status as "phase zero."
In Colorado, a stay-at-home order will expire Sunday, yet the mayor of hard-hit Denver has said the city's restrictions could be extended further. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, announced Wednesday that salons could open by appointment on Friday, followed by gyms and restaurants on May 1. But the mayor of Oklahoma City said it would keep evaluating closures.
In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the state would join New Jersey and Connecticut to partner on a contact tracing program with at least $10 million in funding from former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, also announced a tracing program. Contact tracing uses technology including mobile phones to notify people who may have been exposed, and has proven effective in China and other Asian nations.
Nearly 46,000 people have died in the U.S. from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The number of confirmed U.S. cases is expected to hit 1 million within days. Studies have suggested that at least several times more people have been infected and are contagious without showing symptoms, which makes this coronavirus particularly difficult to contain.
After a slow and still spotty start, the U.S. is testing more than a million people per week for the infection. Public health experts say at least triple that number should be the goal before the nation can safely start resuming activities that bring groups of more than 10 people together.
Late Tuesday, new data showed that coronavirus was in the U.S. much earlier than first believed. The medical examiner in Santa Clara County, Calif., released autopsy reports of two deaths, on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17, that showed they were caused by COVID-19. They are now the country's earliest documented deaths from the disease. Previously, a man in Washington state who died Feb. 28 was thought to be the first casualty.
Health officials have expressed caution about reopenings, fearing revived outbreaks. On Tuesday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, said in an interview with The Washington Post that the disease could "be even more difficult" next winter as it coincides with the normal flu season.
There is "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," he said. "We're going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time."
Apparently Trump objected to the dire conjecture. Early Wednesday, he tweeted that the director was "totally misquoted" on CNN and would be releasing a statement to that effect. While Trump did not indicate what he was objecting to, CNN widely featured the Post's interview of Redfield in its coverage. By midday, Redfield had not issued a statement.
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