US states grapple with plan to ease lockdown amid job losses

More than two dozen US states moved ahead with plans to relax restrictions on business and social life, hoping to reverse the economic blows of the coronavirus that led to another 3.89 million Americans filing jobs claims last week.

With White House guidelines for social distancing expiring on Thursday, states have been grappling with when and how to revive their economies while keeping residents safe with stay-athome and social-distancing policies.

Plans were in place to ease restrictions without the “Opening Up America Again” safeguards the White House itself had recommended, including declines in the infection rate and expanded virus testing.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a White House task force member, warned states against moving too fast.

“You can’t just leap over things to a situation where you’re really tempting (the virus) to rebound. That’s the thing I get concerned about. I hope they don’t do that,” he said.

Coronavirus cases have climbed throughout the country. Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania reported record deaths on Wednesday and the US death toll topped 60,000 with well over one million confirmed cases as of Thursday.

The sense of urgency with which states were looking to reopen was highlighted on Thursday by Labour Department data showing that 3.839 million people filed claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 25.

That was down from 4.442 million the prior week, but still lifted the number of people who sought unemployment benefits to around 30 million since March 21. That represents roughly 18.4 per cent of the working age population.

The numbers suggested that layoffs were spreading to industries not directly hurt initially by business closures and disruptions related to the coronavirus.

“Job separations will likely remain high for a while, as softer demand spills over into industries not initially directly affected by shutdowns,” said Andrew Hollenhorst, an economist at Citigroup in New York.

Florida on Wednesday became the latest state, and one of the largest, to announce steps to ease restrictions that crippled business activity.

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said as he unveiled his phaseone plan to start on Monday to relax mandatory workplace closures and

stay-at-home orders imposed four weeks ago.

Earlier in the week his counterpart in Texas, Greg Abbott, another governor closely aligned with their fellow Republican, President Donald Trump, announced a similar economic reopening strategy due to take effect this Friday. —

You can’t just leap over things to a situation where you’re really tempting (the virus) to rebound. That’s the thing I get concerned about. I hope they don’t do that,

Anthony Fauci a White House task force member