At least 13 U.S. states have partially re-opened parts of their local economies for business despite not one of them having met the requirements of the Trump administration's "Opening Up America Again" guidelines and its strict gating criteria unveiled April 16.
Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Alaska, Minnesota, Michigan, Arkansas, Iowa, and Hawaii have eased social distancing and stay-at-home restrictions and have re-opened some of the business sectors in their local economies hard hit by COVID-19.
The 18-page "Opening Up America Again" plan released April 16 leaves to state governors the decision to lift social distancing and lockdown restrictions forced upon them by the COVID-19 pandemic. States, however, must first comply with a tough set of "gating" criteria before doing so. CNN reports none of these states have met the main gating criteria, which is a downward trajectory of influenza-like illnesses reported within a 14-day period.
There must also be progressively fewer COVID-like syndromic cases reported within a 14-day period. In addition, declines in daily documented cases within a 14-day period, or in positive tests as a percent of total tests within a 14-day period (flat or increasing volume of tests). There must also be a robust testing program in place for at-risk healthcare workers, including emerging antibody testing.
Georgia, which reopened for business on April 24, was the first state to do so despite opposition from several mayors and national health officials. Georgia is the country's 12th most infected state with 23,481 confirmed cases and 916 deaths, as of Monday. Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Alaska all re-opened partially on Friday. Tennessee, Mississippi and Montana re-opened Monday.
Last week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) announced he'd allow some businesses such as hair salons and gyms to resume business starting April 24. His order, which critics said violated the new federal guidelines governing state re-openings was assailed by local and national leaders.
On Friday, the health professionals spearheading the country's fight against COVID-19 expressed dismay at the state re-openings and the state's utter disregard of the gating criteria.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), before the states re-opened, said his message to these states is this is something that is hurting from the the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus.
He warned governors "unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not gonna happen. So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you're gonna set yourself back."
Dr. Fauci said as painful as it is to follow guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening "it's gonna backfire. That's the problem."
As for the U.S., Dr. Fauci said the country will need to increase its testing for the virus by at least two-fold before it could begin reopening its economy.
"You need enough tests so when you're doing what we're trying to do right now, which is trying to ease our way back, that you can very easily identify, test, contact trace and get those who are infected out of society so they don't infect others."
