<![CDATA[Coronavirus: Many US states start to reopen despite warnings of new outbreaks]>
On April 24, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was making headlines. Despite warnings from medical experts, pleas from his own state's mayors and business leaders and even a rare rebuke from US President Donald Trump, the Republican state leader moved ahead with opening Georgia's businesses including those where social distancing would be impossible, such as hair salons and tattoo parlours. Three days later, restaurants and theatres reopened.
While Kemp faced widespread criticism from across the political spectrum, just days later more American states are following suit, rushing to open their economies to varying degrees even as coronavirus testing lags, the number of people infected continues to rise and medical experts warn of potentially catastrophic new outbreaks.
On Thursday, more than 97 per cent of the US population remained under stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, but the next day brought a very different reality with that number set to drop dramatically.
According to White House guidelines, states should see a decline in infections for 14 straight days before reopening is even considered. Arguably, none have managed to meet that criteria, but still nearly half of all states introduced some degree of reopening on Friday.
While Trump has described America's handling of the pandemic as a "spectacular success", health experts like Thomas Frieden, the former director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, have struck a different tone, warning that the US is only at the beginning stages of the crisis.
On Thursday, Texas had its biggest one-day increase in coronavirus deaths, with 50 new fatalities, bringing the statewide toll to 782, with 28,087 cases reported. But Republican Governor Greg Abbott went ahead with his plan to open businesses, including restaurants and theatres across the state, the next day.
Florida reported 34,728 cases on Friday, up 3.1 per cent from a day earlier, with deaths reaching 1,314, an increase of 3.6 per cent. But the figures did not dissuade its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, from proceeding with plans to reopen much of the state on Monday, excluding the three worst-hit counties: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, where Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is located.
Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, North Dakota, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming all saw businesses reopening, although what types of businesses and under what condition varied by state. In Tennessee, the general stay-at-home order expired at 11:59 on Thursday night, allowing its nearly 7 million residents to move freely.
Following Florida's lead, Missouri, Nebraska and West Virginia have plans to reopen on Monday.
For the most part, Trump has been encouraging states to open as soon as possible, tweeting "LIBERATE" at states " especially those with Democratic governors " he perceives as moving too slowly.
In those states taking a more moderate approach to opening up, governors are facing growing tensions from outside and inside their borders.
People spread out on the sand in Newport Beach, California, on Thursday before the beach was ordered closed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Photo: AP alt=People spread out on the sand in Newport Beach, California, on Thursday before the beach was ordered closed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Photo: AP
In Michigan, one of the hardest-hit states with 3,789 Covid-19 deaths, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has extended the stay-at-home mandate until May 15.
Michigan's lawmakers were interrupted in their work on Thursday when hundreds of protesters, many armed, stormed the Capitol building calling on businesses to defy the governor and open the next day. Trump tweeted in support, referring to the protesters as "good people" and calling on Whitmer to "give a little".
Even in California " a state that the White House actually held up as a model in its handling of the pandemic, with restrictions among the earliest and most sweeping in the nation " cracks in its population's resolve are starting to show.
The Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, found himself in a legal battle with the coastal community of Huntington Beach after the city council voted to seek a temporary injunction against the state, with nearby Newport Beach set to follow suit.
Newsom had closed all of the beaches in Orange county after thousands from all over Southern California crowded the sands during a heatwave last weekend. On Friday, protesters gathered on Huntington Beach to protest the closures.
Thanking people for "expressing themselves" on May Day, Newsom acknowledged: "This year is one of frustration and concern and deeply understandable anxiety about the economy and the fate and future of their families."
He then conceded that while he had recently said it would be weeks before the state would begin to open, now "as long as we continue to be prudent and thoughtful" it could be a matter of days.
Also on Friday, Modoc county, one of California's least populated counties " which had reported no cases of Covid-19 " went ahead with opening its bars, restaurants and churches in what was seen as open defiance of the governor's orders.
But the county didn't see it that way, with the deputy director of the its Office of Emergency Services, Heather Hadwick, telling Politico on Thursday: "We're not in this at all to defy anything. We align with the plans. We're just at a different phase in this because of where we are and how we live."
It's not just rural Californians bristling at the restrictions.
As the new month dawned even the state's tech billionaires were growing restive, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk decrying the stay-at-home orders as "fascist" and equating them with "forcibly imprisoning" people.
Musk's outcry seemed to embolden his peers, with other influential techies like the managing director of Boost VC, Adam Draper, and tech investors Jason Calacanis and Ross Gerber taking up his cause.
Some of the communities that have been most effective in controlling the virus are extending restrictions, not lifting them.
In the San Francisco area, where early and comprehensive action has seen the region become a model both in flattening the curve and increasing medical capacity, Mayor London Breed has continued stay-at-home orders through the month " a move widely supported by her constituency.
Facing internal and external pressure, and with no consistent messaging from the federal government, states are teaming up to determine their plans for reopening, attempting to fill the leadership void left by Washington.
Three major coalitions have been formed: one in the northeast consisting of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island; another for California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington in the west; and the Midwestern group of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Kentucky.
Speaking during CNN's coronavirus global town hall on Thursday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the federal government's top expert on infectious diseases, seemed to embody the tricky balancing act facing US leaders and health experts.
"[The governors] know their states, the mayors know their cities, so you want to give them a little wiggle room," Fauci said, "but my recommendation is, you know, don't wiggle too much."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
