US President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration is issuing new federal guidelines that will allow governors to take a phased and calibrated approach to reopening their individual states.
"Instead of a blanket shutdown, we will pursue a focus on sheltering the highest risk individuals,” Mr Trump said.
He said the guidelines criteria set clear benchmarks on new cases, testing, and hospital resources for states to meet before proceeding toward a phased reopening.
For the first phase, the guidelines reccomends that States see a downward trajectory in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases as well as flu-like symptoms for 14 days.
Second phase include asking for all vulnerable individuals to shelter in place, encourage telework, and the common areas should remain closed or be physically distant.
Phase three is returning to the new normal with continuing the good hygiene practices and the respect for spaces between individuals because there are still issues with asymptomatic spread.
"We took the greatest economy in the history of the world, and we closed it in order to win this war, and we are in the process of winning it now. Our approach outlines three phases in restoring our economic life. We are not opening all at once but one careful step at a time, and some states will be able to open up sooner than others. Some states are not in the kind of trouble that others are in,” Trump told reporters during his daily White House news conference on coronavirus.
