Several Southern states moved on Monday to lift stay-at-home orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic, even as top federal health officials warned that too abrupt a reopening could spark new outbreaks of disease.
South Carolina and Georgia made the most aggressive pitches to return life to normal.
In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster allowed beaches to open and said florists and furniture stores could do business by Monday evening.
In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said gyms, salons, bowling alleys and other businesses would reopen on Friday. Kemp also said he would release guidelines this week that would let restaurants —but not bars or clubs —open in a week.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced that the “vast majority” of businesses could reopen by May 1 in all but the most populated counties, with some opening as early as April 27.
The three governors, all Republicans, said social distancing guidelines would be maintained.
“I don’t give a damn about politics now,” Kemp said. The governor said he was concerned about residents “going broke worried about whether they can feed their children and make the mortgage payment.”
None of the three states has achieved the 14 days of sustained decline in coronavirus infections that White House guidelines said should be in place before lifting restrictions on commercial activity. Some public health experts have said widespread measures to reopen the economy would need to be accompanied by half a million tests a day — a level that the country has not yet reached.
In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, asked for patience from his state’s residents, saying he hoped to be able to lift restrictions soon, but that the state needed to increase its capacity for testing first.
“We have to do what we have to do to save lives.”
We gotta get through this together, and I assure you, we will,” Edwards said.
Edwards did say that some hospitals would be allowed to resume elective surgical procedures, a step also taken in several other states under new federal guidance issued over the weekend. Hospitals nationwide largely stopped conducting non-emergency procedures last month in order to clear beds, a move that has significantly reduced revenue and caused serious financial strain for some medical centers.
At a White House briefing Monday, Vice President Mike Pence said “we have enough testing capacity for every state in America” to go to “phase one” of White House reopening guidelines for states and localities once they have achieved a 14-day decline in cases.
That message contradicted Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, who said Monday that the state was paying millions to secure hundreds of thousands of tests from South Korea.
Asked about Maryland, Trump said the governor needs to “get a little knowledge.”
