Coronavirus: Southern governors move to ease lockdowns despite warnings peak is yet to come

Tennessee, Georgia and Texas leaders are keen to restart economies in face of nationwide collapse

As protests against coronavirus stay-at-home lockdowns proliferate across the US, several states are moving to ease their lockdowns in various ways – even as their neighbours are maintaining or even strengthening theirs.

Their decision to start opening up comes as the World Health Organisation warned that rushing to ease coronavirus restrictions will likely lead to a resurgence of infections.

Many US governors take the view that the short- and long-term economic damage caused by wholesale lockdowns may outweigh the implications of the virus’s spread, and are inclined to prioritise getting their states’ economies working again.

Tennessee governor Bill Lee announced on Monday that the state’s stay-at-home order would not be extended past 30 April, and that businesses across most of the state would begin reopening as early as next week. However, the order does not cover counties with the largest cities, including Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga.

Meanwhile, the governor of neighbouring Georgia, Brian Kemp, declared that some businesses would be able to open as soon as 24 April. Citing “favourable data and more testing”, he announced that those allowed to open for “minimum basic operations” will include “gyms, fitness centres, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, aestheticians, their respective schools and massage therapists”.

And in Texas, which has lately seen protesters demanding to go back to work, state parks are reopening while officials said that later in the week, stores will be allowed to offer curbside service.

However, governor Greg Abbott’s phased reopening plan has come in for criticism from public health experts, who say Texas’s outbreak is not expected to peak until early May.

Other state leaders – including in hard-hit Illinois – are also maintaining that the peak of the pandemic is far from behind them, and that only by staying the course can their citizens avoid a second surge in infections and deaths.

Among those warning against lifting lockdowns prematurely is Trump administration adviser Anthony Fauci, who warned that “If you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re gonna set yourself back.

“So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening, it’s going to backfire. That’s the problem.”

One governor who has come in for particularly harsh criticism over his lockdown policies is Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who was initially slow to close public beaches and businesses where people tend to gather in large groups. He has since dedicated sporting events including wrestling as essential businesses, albeit with spectators banned from arenas.

One mayor in his state, Lenny Curry of Jacksonville, has opened beaches in the mornings and evenings for “exercise only” as part of a “path back to normality”, but thousands of people have been seen flocking to them with scant regard for social distancing rules.

With Associated Press