US states plan for reopening as coronavirus crisis eases

NEW YORK - Seven Northeastern US states and the three West Coast states banded together on Monday in regional pacts to forge coordinated, gradual economic reopenings as the coronavirus crisis finally appeared to be ebbing, while stressing the need for precautions to avoid a resurgence of infections.

Announcements from the New York-led group of East Coast governors, and a similar compact formed by California, Oregon and Washington state, came after President Donald Trump declared that any decision on restarting the US economy was up to him.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was teaming up with his counterparts in adjacent New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island to devise the best strategies for easing stay-at-home orders imposed last month to curb coronavirus transmissions.

Massachusetts later announced it was joining the East Coast coalition.

"Nobody has been here before, nobody has all the answers," said Cuomo, whose state has become the US epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic, during an open conference call with five other governors. "Addressing public health and the economy: Which one is first? They're both first."

The three Pacific Coast states announced they, too, planned to follow a shared approach for lifting social-distancing measures, but said they "need to see a decline in the rate of spread of the virus before large-scale reopening" can take place.

The 10 governors, all Democrats except for Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, gave no timeline for ending social lockdowns that have idled the vast majority of more than 100 million residents in their states. But they stressed that decisions about when and how to reopen non-essential businesses, along with schools and universities, will put the health of residents first and rely on science rather than politics.

The announcements came as signs emerged that the crisis had peaked. At least 1,500 new US fatalities were reported on Monday, far below last week's running tally of roughly 2,000 deaths every 24 hours.

Cuomo, whose state accounts for the largest number of cumulative deaths, over 10,000, said on Monday that "the worst is over" for his state.

At least two governors of other hard-hit states - John Bel Edwards of Louisiana and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, both Democrats - also disputed the notion that authority to lift or modify their stay-at-home orders rested with anyone but them.

Pritzker said reopening his state may occur in stages and be accompanied by new face-covering requirements in public places and workplace capacity limits. "The most important thing is safety and health," he said.

Trump, a Republican who before the pandemic had touted a vibrant US economy as the centerpiece of his November re-election bid, has pressed repeatedly in recent weeks for getting Americans back to work soon. Ahead of the governors' announcement on Monday, he insisted he had unilateral authority for ending the lockdowns that have strangled the US economy, throwing at least 17 millions Americans out of work in just three weeks.

Legal experts say the president has limited power under the US Constitution to order citizens back to their places of employment, to require cities to reopen government offices and transportation, or to order local businesses to resume.

Reuters