States confront practical dilemmas
WASHINGTON — Setting the stage for a possible power struggle with President Donald Trump, governors around the U.S. began sketching out plans Tuesday to reopen their economies in a slow and methodical process so as to prevent the coronavirus from rebounding with tragic consequences.
While the crisis is far from over in the U.S., with over 25,000 dead and roughly 600,000 confirmed infections, the doomsday scenarios that were predicted just two weeks ago have not come to pass, raising hopes from coast to coast.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has joined a coalition with his West Coast counterparts in Oregon and Washington on how to emerge from the crisis, outlined a set of conditions Tuesday for lifting coronavirus restrictions in America’s most populous state. Among other things, he said hospitalizations will have to decline and more testing must be done.
And when the state does reopen, he warned, things will not look the same. Waiters will probably be wearing masks and gloves, schools may stagger students’ arrival times to reduce crowding, and large gatherings such as sporting events and concerts are “not in the cards.”
A similar coalition has taken shape in the Northeast.
“The house is still on fire,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said. “We still have to put the fire out,” but also “make sure this doesn’t reignite.”
Politicians and health authorities alike warned an easing of restrictions will have to be accompanied by widespread testing to see who might be immune and ramped-up tracing of infected people’s contacts with others. That could well entail the use of smartphone technology to alert potentially infected people.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to see the U.S. reopened for business quickly. On Monday, he insisted he has “total” authority over the loosening of restrictions, even though the Constitution largely delegates such powers to the states.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose state has by far been America’s hardest hit, ridiculed Trump’s assertion, saying: “We don’t have a king in this country.”
While the president has issued social-distancing guidelines advising people to stay home, it has been governors and local leaders who have instituted the tough, mandatory restrictions, such as lockdowns and the closing of schools and nonessential businesses.
The effects of such measures around the globe were made plain by the International Monetary Fund, which projected the world economy will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression in the 1930s, shrinking by an estimated 3%.
Still, there were glimmers of hope, even in New York, where the death toll topped 10,800.
Cuomo reported 778 deaths over the previous 24 hours, but said fatalities were levelling off, and hospitalizations and the number of new patients put on ventilators were continuing to drop, showing that social distancing is working.
At the same time, he warned against complacency: “We could lose all the progress we made in one week if we do it wrong.”
Governors across the country echoed that sentiment. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said, “We’ve got to make sure that we avoid a second wave at all costs.
“That would be devastating for our economy. So we’re going to make decisions based on science and having a real strategic phase-in of our economy when it’s appropriate and safe to do so,” the Democrat said.
Adding a dose of caution from the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said the U.S. does not yet have the testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening the economy.
“We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,” Fauci said.
Any relaxation of the social-distancing rules would have to occur on a “rolling” basis, not all at once, he said.