bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Charley Lanyon

US President Donald Trump announced a three-phase road map to reopening the country’s economy for the states to begin lifting restrictions on businesses and social gatherings.
The president first alluded to the new plan in a phone call with the nation’s governors, as tensions between the White House and state governments continued to rise.
Experts have cautioned that any move towards loosening social distancing guidelines would only be possible with widespread testing capabilities, and that the United States continues to lag in meeting those requirements.
But the American economy is in trouble as an additional 5.2 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week, with a historic 22 million Americans having filed jobless claims in the last month alone.


Trump used his briefing to back off from recent conflicts with governors. “We’ve had a great relationship, Democrat, Republican the relationship has been good,” he said and emphasised their role in the process of reopening.
“My administration is issuing new federal guidelines that will allow governors to take a phased and deliberate approach to reopening their individual states,” said Trump.
Trump explicitly left the time table for opening up their states to the governors.


“Governors will be empowered to tailor an approach that meets the diverse circumstances they have in their own states,” he said. “If they need to remain closed we will allow them to do that. And if they believe it is time to reopen, we will provide them the freedom and guidance to accomplish that task and very, very quickly.”
Before the phases can be initiated, states must meet a series of “gating criteria” including a downward trajectory of confirmed cases and cases of patients with Covid-19 symptoms over a 14-day period.
During phase one vulnerable populations continue to shelter at home, outside the home social distancing is still practiced and gathering in groups of more than ten people is not allowed. Schools remain closed but restaurants and other gathering places can operate only while enforcing strict physical distancing protocols.
In phase two, gatherings of more than 50 people are discouraged, but non-essential travel can resume. Schools can reopen and large venues including restaurants can operate with only moderate physical distancing.


Phase three represents a return to what is being called the “new normal” - going about normal life with a focus on good hygiene, hand-washing and keeping as much space as possible between people when outside the home and with everyone avoiding crowds wherever possible.
None of the phases have timelines from the federal government, with the timing of their rollout left to the discretion of governors.
“Constant sentinel surveillance in communities with large numbers of vulnerable populations” will be a key part of the opening strategy, said White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr Deborah Birx, explaining that these outposts run by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in conjunction with local health authorities will test anyone coming to clinics, regardless of what they are seeking treatment for.
Lawmakers and medical experts agree that one of the largest roadblocks to reopening the economy is the country’s limited testing capacity. Since most communities are unable to offer comprehensive tests, they argue that citizens will be afraid to go back to work, and that the government would be hobbled in responding quickly if infections spiked unexpectedly.
Birx said her team and the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services are working with labs at universities and other institutions to create capacity to run an additional 1 million Covid-19 tests per week.
Still, some expect setbacks.
A spike in cases is almost inevitable in a state like California because of a large number of homeless people, said Kate Zaiger, a Sacramento-based medical adviser to state Governor Gavin Newsom.
“It’s a bigger crisis than what we’re seeing, and if they want to reopen, fine, but it’s not going to end well,” Zaiger said, pointing out that there are numerous homeless camps in the state with no running water to wash hands or enough separation between those living in them.
Site launched in US to track coronavirus-inspired hate speech and abuse
California, America’s most populous state, has a homeless population of about 150,000, according to US government data.
While Trump stayed away from the kind of political attacks that have characterised the daily White House press briefing, blame over who is more responsible for the spread of Covid-19 spilled out elsewhere.
Just hours before Thursday’s briefing, Trump suggested in a Twitter post that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was “responsible for many deaths” for encouraging people on February 24 to visit San Francisco’s Chinatown, three weeks before the city issued stay-at-home orders.


Crazy Nancy Pelosi deleted this from her Twitter account. She wanted everyone to pack into Chinatown long after I closed the BORDER TO CHINA. Based on her statement, she is responsible for many deaths. She’s an incompetent, third-rate politician! pic.twitter.com/uWNI7DCG3o
 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2020

Trump himself has come under fire from Democrats for downplaying the Covid-19 threat well into March, before ultimately endorsing strict social distancing guidelines.
Additional reporting by Robert Delaney



Elim Chan, acclaimed Hong Kong-born conductor, returns home

Why Hong Kong should roll out the red carpet for international filmmakers

Annual tests find secondary pupils’ English abilities fall to record low in Hong Kong

China’s ‘bat lady’ Shi Zhengli opens path for new coronavirus research

Coronavirus pandemic

Donald Trump announces guidelines for ‘opening up America again’

US President Donald Trump at the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Coronavirus: no ‘business as usual’ with China after pandemic, Britain says

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab holds a press conference on coronavirus updates in London on Thursday. Photo: Andrew Parsons/10 Downing St via dpa

French President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he delivers a speech during a press conference, as a part of his visit in Mulhouse, France February 18, 2020. Jean-Francois Badias/Pool via REUTERS

Coronavirus: G7 seeking WHO review and reform, White House says

US President Donald Trump has withheld US funding of the WHO while accusing it of mishandling the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: Reuters

Coronavirus latest: Trump unveils plan to reopen US; China’s Wuhan revises death toll

Staff work at an ICU in a hospital in northwestern Spain on April 16, 2020. Photo: AFP

Nurse Sylke Pflugmacher (R) takes a sample from nurse Andrea (L) at a testing point for medical staff members at the community hospital in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on April 16, 2020 during the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Ronny Hartmann / AFP)

epa08367158 A handout photo made available bby the French Defense Ministry on 16 April 2020 shows officers getting prepared to work on cleaning and disinfecting the French nuclear aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle in Toulon, France, 15 April 2020. The French Defense Minister announced on 15 April 2020 that 668 people tested positive for the coronavirus in the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. EPA-EFE/BENOIT EMILE HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

epa08368910 Police officers wearing protective masks walk on the Red Square in front of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 17 April 2020. Russian President Vladimir Putin extended the current nationwide lockdown with stay-at-home orders until the end of April in a bid to slow down the spread of the pandemic COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV

Migrant workers are pictured outside their dormitory rooms at Cochrane Lodge II, which was declared an isolation area due to the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), in Singapore April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su

Alfons Lopez cooperates with the BonArea supermarket as a volunteer making home delivery to elderly people during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in El Masnou, north to Barcelona, Spain, April 16, 2020. REUTERS/ Albert Gea

A woman wearing a protective face mask whilst travelling on the London Underground, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, London, Britain, April 17, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville

News

China

World

United States & Canada

Coronavirus

US & Canada

Greater China


Trump explicitly leaves the time table for opening up states to the governors
‘Governors will be empowered to tailor an approach that meets the diverse circumstances’ of their own states, he says



Donald Trump announces guidelines for ‘opening up America again’

Trump explicitly leaves the time table for opening up states to the governors ‘Governors will be empowered to tailor an approach that meets the diverse circumstances’ of their own states, he says

Trump explicitly leaves the time table for opening up states to the governors

‘Governors will be empowered to tailor an approach that meets the diverse circumstances’ of their own states, he says