Washington: With the number of new deaths and rate of hospitalisations falling in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that “the worst is over” in the coronavirus pandemic, and he announced an alliance with six other Northeastern governors to explore how to eventually lift restrictions - a move that appeared to be an implicit rebuke to President Donald Trump.
The governors from New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts and Rhode Island said they would begin to draw up a plan for when to reopen businesses and schools and how quickly to allow people to return to work safely, although the timeline for such a plan remained unclear.
“If you do it wrong, it can backfire, and we’ve seen that with other places in the globe,” Cuomo said. “What the art form is going to be here is doing that smartly and doing that in a coordinated way.”
The joint effort was the first of two announced Monday: The governors of California, Oregon and Washington, three Western states that were among those that felt the effects of the virus before it spread rapidly in the Northeast, announced a similar pact. All but one of the 10 governors on the two coasts are Democrats.
In moving ahead on their own, the governors were all but disregarding Trump just as he was trying to assert control over the question of when and how to reopen the country - a move that set up the possibility of a collision course between the states and Washington.
The president spent Monday assembling a task force to advise him on a path to restoring some semblance of normal life in America. He rejected the notion that the decision would be left to the governors, even though they have been the ones to close the schools and issue the stay-at-home orders, not the federal government.
Federal guidelines
The federal government issued guidelines last month recommending that Americans refrain from gatherings of over 10 people and take other measures, but the binding orders to close were issued by the governors and mayors. It also remained unclear how Trump could overrule a governor who wanted to keep businesses and schools closed even after the president wanted them to reopen.
In staking out his authority, Trump seemed to be contradicting his previous position that handling the coronavirus outbreak was essentially a local problem. The president had resisted enacting a national stay-at-home lockdown, leaving it to each state to decide on its own; the president also has said that it was a state’s job to properly manage its hospital beds and ventilators.
The focus on reopening the economy came even as the death toll in New York state surpassed 10,000 people, but other indicators continued to plateau or decline slightly, leading Cuomo to declare that the worst of the outbreak may have passed.
Nearly 19,000 people remain hospitalised in New York, the epicentre of the pandemic in the United States, but the rate of hospitalisations has slowed markedly over the last week, and the 671 deaths announced Monday marked the lowest one-day death toll in a week.
But even with the numbers plateauing, Cuomo said, the situation could worsen if New Yorkers ignored social distancing measures.
“I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart,” Cuomo, a Democrat, said during his daily briefing in Albany. “I believe we can start on the path to normalcy.”
Gradually increase economic activity
With millions of people filing for unemployment benefits and tax revenues drying up, the governors from the seven Northeastern states said the objective was to gradually increase economic activity and the number of employees considered essential workers, while tracking closely the virus’s infection rate. They added that they needed to act in concert to prevent people from crossing state borders to shop or do business in states with looser restrictions.
The seven states together have recorded over 325,000 confirmed virus cases and more than 14,400 deaths, around 63 per cent of the country’s total. The governors of those states sought to cast their action both as a sign of hope and as a recognition that they had to act on their own.
“Seeing as how we had the responsibility for closing the state down, I think we probably have the primary responsibility for opening it up,” Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania said. “We’re simply saying it’s our responsibility to steer our way through these uncharted waters. And it’s our responsibility to figure out a way back.”
Testing for anti-bodies
Cuomo has said a successful approach to reopening the economy would hinge on the ability to ramp up testing for antibodies to identify people who are immune to the virus and could safely return to work.
New York business leaders were cautiously encouraged by the action taken by Cuomo and other governors, noting that the state’s economy had been battered in recent weeks after a decade-long run that had seen low unemployment and strong consistent growth.
“There’s no doubt there’s going to be economic harm; there already has been,” said Heather C. Briccetti, president of the Business Council of New York State. “The question is how do we thoughtfully exit the shutdown and how do you take steps to reopen so that you don’t prolong the harm.”
Small-business owners warily rejoiced at the prospect of reopening at some point.
Michael Mirzayev, 22, who co-owns the Coney Island Pet Grooming in Brooklyn, New York, said that he was hopeful that businesses could reopen by May or soon thereafter, but not if it meant the virus could see a resurgence.
“We have been hearing that Cuomo is planning to reopen, and we hope it’s true,” said Mirzayev, who runs the pet salon with his mother. “We have to get back to work and stuff to pay for just like everyone else.”
