ATLANTA (Reuters) – Nearly every business in Georgia was free to reopen on Friday after being shut for weeks, in a move closely watched by the U.S. government and other states to see if the lifting of restrictions triggers a spike in coronavirus deaths.
FILE PHOTO: A classroom sits empty ahead of the statewide school closures in Ohio, inside Milton-Union Exempted Village School District in West Milton, Ohio, U.S., March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Kyle Grillot
With about half of U.S. states edging towards the partial lifting of shutdowns that had aimed to curb the pandemic, Georgia was trying to get back to business ahead of the others.
Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, decided against extending Georgia’s month-long shelter-in-place orders this week, enabling a full gamut of businesses to open. He approved the reopening of hair salons, gyms and other service businesses last Friday, followed by movie theaters and restaurants on Monday.
By contrast, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday all state schools including colleges would remain closed for the remainder of the academic year due to the pandemic. The coronavirus has hit New York especially hard, making it the world epicenter for the COVID-19 disease.
And some workers at Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Target Corp (TGT.N) and Instacart Inc were staging protests and sick-outs in New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and other states on Friday to demand a safer work environment and better pay during the outbreak.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an adviser to President Donald Trump, said on Thursday he was concerned about states and communities reopening ahead of a timeline recommended by the White House.
But Georgia’s rush to get back to work was applauded by Michael Bowers, 55, who co-owns Bowers Watch & Clock Repair in Atlanta’s tony Buckhead neighborhood.
“We need to reopen,” he said of the business his grandfather started in the 1940s. “We couldn’t stay alive with doors shut. We need that money stream or we fail.”
Bowers had no customers in his store early on Friday but had heard from people who wanted to pick up clocks left before the shutdown.
“We know you have to be cautious, we know it’s not entirely safe,” he said, standing in front of a wall covered with antique timepieces, including an age-faded pendulum clock dating to 1775.
PRESSURE ON STATES
As of late on Thursday, the number of known infections nationwide had climbed to well over 1 million, including nearly 63,000 deaths, exceeding the tally of American war dead from all the years of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.
The enormous pressure on states to reopen, despite a lack of wide-scale virus testing and other safeguards urged by health experts, was highlighted in Labor Department data on Thursday showing some 30 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits since March 21.
Trump, who has sent conflicting messages on the pandemic for weeks, added to the pressure on state governors on Friday. In a Twitter message, he urged Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, to compromise with protesters who gathered at the state Capitol in Lansing on Thursday to decry her request to extend emergency powers to combat COVID-19.
“The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal,” Trump tweeted.
Many people at the Michigan “American Patriot Rally,” including militia group members carrying firearms and people with pro-Trump signs appeared to ignore state social-distancing guidelines as they clustered together within six feet (two meters) of one another.
With White House guidelines for reopening having expired on Thursday, half of all U.S. states were pressing on with a patchwork of strategies to allow businesses, from restaurants and retailers to construction and manufacturing, to emerge from a month of dormancy.
No companies were required to reopen and it was unclear how many business owners and their employees would return to work, and how many patrons would venture back into stores and restaurants.
In Texas, all retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls were allowed to resume activity on Friday while limiting capacity to 25% of their listed occupancy.
Texas has a larger population than New York but has not been affected by the pandemic nearly as badly as the northeastern state. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22,759 people had died of COVID-19 in New York as of Thursday, with the Texas death toll much lower at 732.
Ohio will start by allowing non-essential surgeries on Friday then move to open construction and manufacturing on Monday and retail shops and many consumer services on May 12.
Fauci, a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, said on Thursday he was concerned about states “leapfrogging” over the first phase of federal guidelines for reopening.
“Obviously, you could get away with that, but you’re making a really significant risk,” Fauci told CNN.
Reporting by Maria Caspani, Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York, Doina Chiacu in Washington and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Howard Goller and Cynthia Osterman
