Hours after US President Donald Trump and New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo exchanged a war of words on how the States should reopen after weeks of lockdown enforced in wake of rising coronavirus cases, both parties have come out extending hands of 'total partnership and cooperation'.
“This is going to take us working together. We have a real challenge ahead,” Cuomo said during his daily briefing in Albany. Throughout the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has insisted that the crisis requires him to be above politics and partisanship.
US President Donald Trump, who earlier claimed “total” authority to decide how and when to reopen the economy, on Tuesday said he would leave that to individual governors, some of whom are wanting to reopen even before May 1.
Currently, all of the 50 American States have been notified as major disaster declaration along with a national emergency as America fights out the deadly coronavirus.
According to Johns Hopkins University, COVID-19 has so far killed at least 119,000 people globally and infected nearly two million people.
In the United States, more than 25,000 Americans have lost their lives and over six lakhs have tested positive: the highest for any country in the world.
Over 95 per cent of the 330 million population in the US are under stay-at-home order. The country's economy has come to a standstill and more than 17 million people have applied for unemployment grant.
However, with a gradual decline in the number of new cases being reported in the US, Trump is now mulling to open the country's economy and get the nation back to work.
"The plans to reopen the country are close to being finalized, and we will soon be sharing details in new guidelines with everybody, Trump told reporters during his daily White House news conference on the coronavirus outbreak. He plans to talk to all the 50 governors' very shortly.
I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening and a very powerful reopening plan of their state at a time and in a manner as most appropriate. The day will be very close because certain states are in much different condition and a much different place than other states. It's going to be very, very close maybe even before the date of May 1, Trump said.
Trump said that over 20 of the 50 States are now in extremely good shape.
And we think we are going to be able to get them open fairly quickly, and then others will follow, he said. The federal government will be watching them very closely, and will be there to help, he added.
We will hold the governors accountable, but again we are going to be working with them to make sure it works really well, Trump said.
Illinois Governor J B Pritzker appreciated the announcement by Trump for leaving the decision on States as to when to reopen the economy.
"Well, it's a good thing that the President finally recognized that it's the Constitution that authorizes the governors to have the power to reopen their states. And so I appreciate that" he said at a news conference in his home state.
"I think (New York) Governor (Andrew) Cuomo had it right when he said that the President is not a king. He's President of the United States of America. And so we're looking forward to evaluating what it is that we're going to do going forward, he said.
The most important thing that we'll do is focus on the safety and health of the people of our states. In my case, you know, I've made it clear, we need testing, tracing, contact tracing, and we need treatment. Put that together with readily available PPE, and then you can start to talk about how you will reopen an economy," the Illinois Governor said.
At the White House, Trump said that there are tremendous interest and excitement surrounding the administration's efforts to get the economy roaring once again. I think it is going to roar once it gets open. I think it is going to go up tremendously, he said.
You see what is happening with the stock market already because a lot of the very smart financial people the great minds they are looking at the stock, and they are saying wow because really what they are seeing is how we are doing.
If we weren't doing well, the market went to be at a level that it is today. They have a lot of confidence that we are doing the right thing and that our country is going to be open soon and our country is going to be booming, Trump said.
(With inputs from PTI)
