NEW YORK (Reuters) – 7 Northeastern U.S. states and the three West Coast states united on Monday in local pacts to create collaborated, progressive economic reopenings as the coronavirus crisis finally seemed receding, while stressing the requirement for safety measures 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 stated that any decision on rebooting the U.S. economy was up to him.
New York City Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was partnering with his counterparts in adjacent New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island to develop the best strategies for reducing stay-at-home orders enforced last month to suppress coronavirus transmissions.
Massachusetts later revealed it was joining the East Coast coalition.
” No one has actually been here before, no one has all the responses,” said Cuomo, whose state has become the U.S. epicenter of the international coronavirus pandemic, during an open teleconference with five other guvs. “Dealing with public health and the economy: Which one is? They’re both very first.”
The 3 Pacific Coast states revealed they, too, prepared to follow a shared method for lifting social-distancing measures, but said they “require to see a decrease in the rate of spread of the virus prior to massive resuming” can happen.
SECURITY AND HEALTH FIRST
The 10 governors, all Democrats other than for Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, provided no timeline for ending social lockdowns that have idled the large bulk of more than 100 million homeowners in their states. However they worried that decisions about when and how to reopen non-essential businesses, together with schools and universities, will put the health