Lacking US Coordination, 17 Governors Gang Up

The question is when to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 18, 2020 12:30 PM CDT
Lacking US Coordination, 17 Governors Gang Up
In this file photo taken Tuesday April 14, 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom discusses an outline for what it will take to lift coronavirus restrictions during a news conference at the Governor's Office of Emergency Services in Rancho Cordova, Calif.   (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli,File)

President Trump, in a roller-coaster week of reversals and contradictions, told governors to "call your own shots" on lifting stay-at-home orders once the coronavirus threat subsides, the AP reports. But then he took to Twitter to push some to reopen their economies quickly and tell them it was their job to ramp up testing. "This is mayhem," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday. "We need a coordinated approach between the federal government and the states." In the absence of one, Cuomo and sixteen other governors representing half the nation's population have organized three separate clusters of states each committed to working together on the details of relaunching businesses, schools, and events while avoiding a resurgence of infections.

The pacts have formed among states mostly with Democratic governors on the West Coast, around the Great Lakes, and in the densely populated Northeast, covering several big metropolitan areas that cross state lines, including New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Others are going their own way, including Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday that he would ease some pandemic-related restrictions next week. Florida, another state with a huge population, is also not in an alliance. California, Oregon, and Washington state have teamed up, and pacts have formed among Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island as well as Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

(More coronavirus stories.)

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