The coronavirus epidemic in New York State, the American epicenter, is on a downward curve, a first since the start of the epidemic which risks fueling the controversy between Donald Trump and the governors of the States on the maintenance of containment measures.
“We have passed the high point, and all indications at this point are that we are in a downward phase,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday during his daily press briefing on the epidemic.
But as pressure to revive activity mounts across the United States – the country most affected in the world by the epidemic with nearly 759,000 confirmed cases and nearly 41,000 dead – he called for caution to “not not compromise “the progress made.
“The continuation of this descent will depend on what we do,” said Cuomo, who recently extended containment measures in his state until May 15.
Other states have started loosening distancing rules. Some Florida beaches were cleared to reopen Sunday, and immediately stormed. The governors of Texas and Vermont also plan to relaunch certain activities, cautiously, as of Monday.
The pressure is on, while unemployment is exploding. Demonstrations have multiplied for eight days in American states to denounce confinement deemed excessive.
Most rallies were limited to a few hundred people – one of them on Sunday in Chicago even flopped, with just three protesters’ cars. But 2,000 people demonstrated in Olympia, Washington State (northwest) to demand the lifting of containment in this state which was one of the first in the country to be affected by the pandemic.
The US president has in his own way encouraged these demonstrations: Friday, he called for the “liberation” of certain states led by Democratic governors. On Saturday, after a dozen anti-containment protests in various states, he felt that “some governors had gone too far”.
Comments denounced by some governors, including Republicans.
Larry Hogan, Republican governor of Maryland, the scene of a demonstration Saturday, estimated that “encouraging people to demonstrate against a plan on which you have just made recommendations, it does not make sense.”
– Dispute over tests –
Another point of friction between governors and Donald Trump: the massive tests necessary to be able to revive the economy without risking a new outbreak of the epidemic.
The federal government assures that the states now have sufficient testing capacity at their disposal, which several governors deny, who have indicated that they lack swabs, these kinds of long cotton swabs that are inserted into the nasal cavities to check the presence of the virus, and of reactive products necessary to obtain the results.
On Sunday evening, Donald Trump announced that his administration was close to concluding an agreement on the production of millions of swabs.
“We will start to reopen our country,” the US president told reporters. “We are going to be very, very careful and I think it will be very successful.”
“There is sufficient testing capacity in the country today for any state to enter phase 1” of reopening the economy, its vice president Mike Pence also said on Fox News.
As part of the recommendations issued by the White House to states to decide on the gradual lifting of confinement, this first phase provides for the partial reopening of certain businesses.
But the Democratic Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, much criticized by Donald Trump in recent days for having adopted restrictions on arms, called these claims “delusional” and “irresponsible”.
“We have been asked, as governors, to wage this war without the material we need,” he said on CNN.
Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic governor of Michigan, where some 3,000 people demonstrated on Wednesday, also pointed to a shortage.
Just like Mr. Cuomo, who alternates between criticism and compliments from Donald Trump, but who has sought to calm things down.
He called the collaboration between the federal government and the states to bring down the curve a “phenomenal achievement”, stressing that Washington had been “a formidable partner” when it was necessary to increase the capacity of New York hospitals in March.
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