Donald Trump says many states in US to reopen 'safely & quickly' amid COVID-19 pandemic

As criticism mounts over the US government for its handling of coronavirus outbreak, US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to inform that several states in the country are on their way to reopen and that too safely. Trump first attacked the media for “complaining” and not telling the truth about the US doing “far better than any other country” and then assured that the outbreak is on its way to be contained in many states. Trump’s optimistic tweet came as the death toll in the US reached 56,803 with over 1,010,507 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections.

Further lauding his own administration, the US President said that no matter how good the job is done by the officials, certain media outlets, according to him, will never appreciate their work. Trump then said that Texas is ready to resume its working in phases from May 1 while referring to the three-phased opening of the states in the US after businesses were halted to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Since the plan to reopen the United States mainly gave the governors the power to make the decision, Texas governor Greg Abbott was especially appreciated by Trump. 

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According to Abbott’s plan, the restaurants, retailers, movie theatres and malls, in-state will be open to the public till their 25 per cent capacity to allow the practice of social distancing. The stay-at-home order that was placed in Texas will expire on April 30 but bars, salons, gyms will still remain closed. Meanwhile, restaurants in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alaska began opening for some dine-in customers with rules including temperature checkpoints and precautions for possible contact tracing.

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3-phase plan by White House

In the belief that the coronavirus outbreak in the United States has “passed the peak”, country’s President Donald Trump announced a three-phase plan to re-open America for “rejuvenation of economy” on April 17. Giving most control over the decision to the state governors, Trump administration has chosen to shelter more vulnerable individuals from the risk of contracting COVID-19 disease, instead of continuing the "blanket shutdown". The White House released the entire plan in three phases based on state or regional “gating criteria”. 

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