President Trump unveiled Thursday broad guidelines for states to follow as they begin reopening amid the persistent coronavirus pandemic while leaving the specific plans to the governors.
The guidance, formally introduced by the president at the evening White House briefing, provides state leaders a phased list of criteria to lift social distancing restrictions. For governors to start the process, they must first show coronavirus cases in their state are decreasing.
“We’re starting our life again. We’re starting to rejuvenate of our economy again in a safe and structured and very responsible fashion,” Trump said.
Earlier Thursday, Trump explained the parameters to governors on a conference call, assuring them, “You’re going to call your own shots,” according to a recording of the call obtained by The Washington Post. But he emphasized that the federal government will support the states in the process.
Trump’s decision to defer to the governors is a change from his stance earlier this week when he declared he had “total authority” to unilaterally open the country — a statement that drew blowback from governors and even some congressional Republicans who argued the assertion was contrary to the Constitution.
The guidelines suggest that before reopening, states should first see a decrease in confirmed covid-19 cases over a 14-day period. That suggestion is in line with the recommendations of public health experts, who have said that due to the virus’s 14-day incubation period, states should refrain from moving toward relaxing their restrictions until they have seen a sustained reduction in new cases for at least that long.
The White House plan also states that hospitals should be able to “treat all patients without crisis care” and have a “robust testing system in place for at-risk health care workers” before proceeding to a phased reopening.
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As he did at Wednesday’s coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden, Trump on Thursday said that the states, rather than the federal government, are “going to lead the testing.”
“Much better for you to do it than the big federal government,” he told the governors.
He also appeared to cite recent protests, such as one this week in Michigan, when making the case for why the country needed to be reopened immediately.
“People are not going to stand for this,” Trump said of the country being closed down.
But some governors appealed to Trump for more testing kits and supplies, pointing to shortages of key equipment in their states.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) said that his state recently got the “great Abbott machines,” referring to the highly sought-after rapid-response tests developed by Abbott Laboratories — but “two weeks later, we don’t have testing kits to actually use them.”
“Testing supplies do remain a challenge,” Bullock said.
During the Thursday evening news conference, Trump suggested some states could start relaxing social distancing restrictions as soon as Friday. He declined to specify what states this could be, saying it will be up to the governors.
“Some states are really in great shape,” he said.
Trump also held a conference call with senators earlier Thursday. During the call, the president largely held back and listened to the senators, as both Democrats and Republicans alike pressed him on the need for more broad testing availability, according to senators on the call and other officials briefed on it.
Democrats in particular expressed wariness to the president about reopening the economy until the testing was robust enough, according to one of the officials, who spoke anonymously to discuss a private conference call.
Still, some GOP senators also spoke of their vision for what a restart of the economy would look like,
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who participated in the call Thursday, said the re-openings should be staggered, county by county, state by state, depending on each localities’ circumstances — and that Trump was “definitely” receptive to that position. Braun warned in an interview that the economy was “very close to the point of irreparable damage.”
“There’s no way we’re going to be able to test comprehensive enough and with enough confidence where it would assuage the fears of people who want that in place before you reopen the economy,” Braun said.
But the eagerness of Trump and some other Republicans to reopen the stalled economy alarmed the Democrats on the call, who all pressed the president for more expansive testing. Trump and Vice President Pence told senators that the current testing capacity was about 120,000 tests per day, said Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who also participated on the call.
“We need to do this in a methodical way and not just rush forward and put lives at risk,” said Sen. Duckworth, one of the 13 Democratic senators selected for the president’s task force on reopening the economy.
One senator also asked Trump why the drug hydroxychloroquine — an anti-malarial drug that Trump has publicly touted as a promising treatment for the coronavirus, despite lack of scientific proof — wasn’t yet being prescribed to combat the coronavirus, and the president supported that idea.
About eight or nine Republican senators spoke, as well as about three or four Democrats, Braun said.
https://news.google.com/__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?oc=5
2020-04-16 23:07:28Z
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