Trump shares ‘unlockdown’ plan, calls to ‘liberate states’
President hits out at political rivals, WHO and essentially backs the protests against lockdowns in various states
nWASHINGTON: Covid-19 deaths in the US spiked by a new record of 4,591 on Friday as President Donald Trump unveiled guidelines for reopening the country and appeared to practically lead, from his Twitter handle, the protests against the continuing lockdown in several states.
Trump hit out at his political rivals including Democrat state governors, the World Health Organization and asked for ‘liberating’ locked-down states, some of whom had in fact extended the restrictions. He tweeted on Friday: “Today people started losing their jobs because of Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, who should immediately come back to Washington and approve legislation to help families in America. End your ENDLESS VACATION!”
“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!
LIBERATE MICHIGAN! LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
Protests have broken out in Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Kentucky, Utah and Wyoming demanding reopening of the country.
On the WHO, Trump appeared to quote Lanhee Chen, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, and tweeted: “Why did the W.H.O. Ignore an email from Taiwanese health officials in late December alerting them to the possibility that Coronavirus could be transmitted between humans? ”
The US death toll as of Friday morning was more than 35,300 and confirmed cases topped 680,500. The number of cases increased in New York state, the epicentre of the American epidemic, to nearly 226,200 with more than 16,730 fatalities.
“We’re starting our life again,” Trump said on Thursday. “We’re starting rejuvenation of our economy... in a safe and structured and very responsible fashion.”
States were expected to announce their own reopening plans but New York extended its shutdown to May 15; Michigan and Missouri had also extended their stay-at-home orders. The guidelines provide that the reopening be spread over three phases and laid down “gatekeeping” criteria for progressing from one phase to another. A state could decide to open up entirely or partially, based on criteria that include infection rates and ability of hospitals to cope.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he needed federal government help to ramp up testing and accused Trump administration of failing to provide funding to states. “That is passing the buck without passing the bucks,” he said. Trump pushed back, tweeting it was up to the states to “step up their testing,” and went on to attack Cuomo.