US President Donald Trump on Thursday laid out new guidelines for states to emerge from a COVID-19 lockdown in a staggered, three-stage approach meant to revive the economy, even as the nation continues to fight the pandemic.
The recommendations call on states to show a “downward trajectory” of COVID-19 cases or positive tests for the disease over 14 days before proceeding with the plan, which gradually loosens restrictions on businesses that have been shuttered to blunt the spread of the coronavirus.
“We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Trump earlier this month had said that he wanted to reopen the economy with a “big bang.”
The plan is a set of recommendations for state governors, not orders. In that sense, it represented a U-turn by Trump, who on Monday said that he had total authority to direct states to reopen or remain closed.
The responsibility for such decisions lies with state, not federal, authorities.
With the onus on state governors, the plan also gives Trump political cover if not everything goes to plan. The president, a Republican who is running for re-election in November, has faced criticism for downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus in the early weeks of the pandemic.
The recommendations drew criticism from Ron Klain, who spearheaded the response to Ebola for the administration of then-US president Barack Obama and has advised former US vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“This isn’t a plan. It’s barely a powerpoint,” Klain wrote on Twitter, adding that it did not include provisions to ramp up testing or set a specific standard for levels of the disease before economic opening.
Democrats such as US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Biden said that testing was key to reopening the nation and criticized Trump’s presentation for lacking specifics.
“I wouldn’t call it a plan. I think what he’s done, he’s kind of punted,” Biden said in an interview on CNN.
The new guidelines effectively end, at least for some states, the 30-day federal coronavirus mitigation rules that were meant to stay in place through the end of this month.
States that have met the criteria could move into the first phase of reopening yesterday, Trump said.
However, before they do that, the guidelines suggest hospitals have a “robust testing program” that includes antibody testing in place for healthcare workers.
States should have the ability to set up screening and testing sites for people with symptoms, contact-tracing capabilities, and healthcare facilities that are able to supply personal protective gear independently and handle surges of COVID-19 cases.
In the first phase of reopening, the guidelines say groups of more than 10 people should be avoided if appropriate distancing measures are not practical. Non-essential travel should be minimized, teleworking should be encouraged and common areas in offices closed.
Schools remain closed in the first phase, but large venues — such as movie theaters, restaurants, sports stadiums and places of worship — could reopen with “strict physical distancing protocols.”
Hospitals, which have been hit hard by the pandemic, could resume out-patient elective surgeries and gyms could reopen, but bars should remain closed, the guidelines say.
In the second phase, applicable to states and regions with “no evidence of a rebound” in cases, the guidelines recommend groups of more than 50 be avoided where social distancing is not practical.
Non-essential travel could resume, schools and youth camps could reconvene, and bars with “diminished standing-room occupancy” could reopen. Hospitals could also resume in-patient elective surgeries.
The third phase includes unrestricted staffing of workplaces, but Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force who took a lead role in designing the guidelines, said that a “new normal” would remain in place — a need for higher hygiene standards and more space between people to prevent asymptomatic spread of the coronavirus.
Trump has been pushing to get the US economy going again after the lockdowns have left millions of Americans unemployed.
More than 20 million people have filed for unemployment in the past month.
“A prolonged lockdown combined with a forced economic depression would inflict an immense and wide-ranging toll on public health,” Trump said, adding that it could lead to a sharp rise in drug abuse, alcohol abuse, suicide and heart disease.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations