In the News

Trump unveils 3-phase revival plan

Arkansas Democrat Gazette
04/17/2020

President Donald Trump gave governors a road map Thursday for recovering from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, laying out "a phased and deliberate approach" to restoring normal activity in places that have strong testing and are seeing a decrease in covid-19 cases.

"We're starting our life again," Trump said during his daily news briefing. "We're starting rejuvenation of our economy again."

He added, "this is a gradual process."

The new guidelines are aimed at easing restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus, while holding the line in harder-hit locations. They make clear that the return to normalcy will be a far longer process than Trump initially envisioned, with federal officials warning that some social-distancing measures may need to remain in place through the end of the year to prevent a new outbreak. And they largely reinforce the plans already under development by governors, who have the primary responsibility for public health in their states.

"You're going to call your own shots," Trump told the governors Thursday in a conference call, according to an audio recording obtained by The Associated Press. "We're going to be standing alongside of you."

Under the plan, places with declining infections and strong testing would begin a three-phase gradual reopening of businesses and schools.

In Phase One, for instance, the plan recommends strict social distancing for all people in public. Gatherings larger than 10 people are to be avoided, and nonessential travel is discouraged.

In Phase Two, people are encouraged to maximize social distancing where possible and limit gatherings to no more than 50 people unless precautionary measures are taken. Travel could resume.

Phase Three envisions a return to normalcy for most Americans, with a focus on identification and isolation of any new infections.

Trump said parts of the country that are lesser-hit would be able to proceed to "Phase One" of his guidelines "literally tomorrow." But he said he doesn't want New York or other hard-hit areas to come back too soon.

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.

Trump said the states, rather than the federal government, are "going to lead the testing."

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, a Democrat, said 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.

"We are struggling with testing at a large scale," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican, told ABC's The View. "You really can't go back to work until we have more tests."

But some of Trump's conservative allies, like economist Stephen Moore, have encouraged him to act swiftly, warning of "a mini Great Depression if we keep the economy shut down."

"That is a catastrophic outcome for our country. Period," Moore said he advised the president. "We can't have 30 million people in this country unemployed or you're going to have social chaos."

Trump suggested that people want to return to watching football games and filling restaurants. "That's going to happen, and it's going to be relatively quickly," he predicted.

The move came the same day that the government reported that 5.2 million more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the four-week total to 22 million -- easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record. The losses translate to about one in seven American workers.

Many Americans have chafed at the damage to their livelihoods. Especially in rural areas and other parts of the country that have not seen major outbreaks, some have called on governors to reopen their economies.

Business leaders and governors, however, have warned that more testing and protective gear are needed before they can start lifting the lockdowns and other restrictions that have all but strangled the economy. Health experts have cautioned that easing restrictions too soon could allow the virus to come storming back.

Two in three Americans expressed concerns that restrictions intended to slow the spread of the virus would be eased too quickly, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday.

AROUND THE GLOBE

Worldwide, the outbreak has infected more than 2.1 million people and killed more than 143,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, though the true numbers are believed to be much higher. The death toll in the U.S. topped 33,100, with more than 670,000 confirmed infections late Thursday.

The spread of the virus is declining in such places as Italy, Spain and France, but rising or continuing at a high level in Britain, Russia and Turkey, authorities said.

Many European countries have also seen heavy job losses, but places like Germany and France are using government subsidies to keep millions of people on payrolls instead of letting them go on unemployment. Political leaders on the continent are still trying to find a balance between their country's health and its wealth.

Italy's hard-hit Lombardy region is pushing to restart manufacturing when the nationwide lockdown ends in early May, while Britain, with almost 14,000 dead, extended its nationwide lockdown for at least three more weeks.

Swiss authorities announced a staggered series of reopenings. "Ladies and gentlemen, the transition is beginning," Home and Health Minister Alain Berset said. "We want to go as fast as possible, and as slow as necessary."

New York, the most lethal hot spot in the U.S., reported more encouraging signs, with a drop in the daily number of deaths statewide and the overall count of people in the hospital.

"We've controlled the beast. We've brought the rate of spread down," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. Still, he extended the state's lockdown through at least May 15, and New York City is lining up 11,000 empty hotel rooms to quarantine people living in crowded apartment buildings.

GOVERNORS WEIGH IN

Governors of both parties made clear that they will move at their own pace.

Delaware Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, said the national guidelines "seem to make sense."

"We're days, maybe weeks away from the starting line, and then you have to have 14 days of declining cases, of declining symptoms and hospital capacity that exists in case you have a rebound," he said.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut called it "a good plan," noting that it left all of the discretion to governors. "I welcome that guidance. So I think we're on the right track."

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Trump ally, cautiously floated the idea of reopening parts of his state, but said testing capacity and contact tracing would need to be considerably ramped up before restrictions could be safely lifted.

"All would be forgotten very quickly if we moved into a stage quicker than we should, and then we got into a situation where we had people dying like flies," Justice told reporters.

Governors, for their part, have been moving ahead with their own plans for how to safely revive normal activity. Seven Midwestern governors announced Thursday that they will coordinate on reopening their economies. Similar pacts were announced earlier in the week in the West and Northeast.

TASK FORCE MEMBERS

Trump also held conference calls Thursday with the lawmakers he named to a new congressional advisory task force on reviving the economy.

"My highest priority on this task force will be to ensure the federal government's efforts to reopen our economy are bipartisan, data-driven and based on the expertise of public health professionals," said Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia.

Other than Mitt Romney, every Senate Republican -- including Arkansas' John Boozman of Rogers and Tom Cotton of Dardanelle -- was named to the task force. On the House side, U.S. Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Little Rock, was the lone Arkansan to garner an appointment.

"[I]f this morning's call with [Trump] is any indication, there is strong bipartisan support amongst my colleagues for strategies that will bend two of the most pressing curves: the increase in coronavirus cases and the stunning rise in unemployment," Hill said in a written statement. "Americans are looking for a return to the usual rhythms of life, and I am optimistic that this working group will help identify ways to do this safely."

Separately, six Arkansans were among those named to the Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups, the White House task force announced Tuesday that will advise the president on ways to reopen the economy as the pandemic subsides.

They are Doug McMillon of Walmart Inc.; Dean Banks of Tyson Foods Inc.; Ronnie Cameron of Mountaire Farms; Darrin Williams of Southern Bancorp; John Roberts III of J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.; and Warren Stephens of Stephens Inc.

FACEBOOK ACTIONS

Facebook said Thursday that it will begin alerting users if they have interacted with harmful misinformation about the coronavirus, part of a series of new, aggressive steps to combat what health authorities have described as a global "infodemic."

The messages -- which will appear in users' News Feeds -- will direct people to official, credible information from the World Health Organization in an attempt to ensure that dangerous myths about the disease, its origins and how it is treated don't continue to proliferate, either on the social-networking site or in the real world.

"We want to connect people who may have interacted with harmful misinformation about the virus with the truth from authoritative sources in case they see or hear these claims again off of Facebook," Guy Rosen, the company's vice president for integrity, said in a blog post. He said the warnings would appear for those who have "liked, reacted or commented" on such content.