Texas Announces Plans to Re-open, Other States Remain on Lockdown

This was the second of three stories for Dr. Dean’s Spring 2020 Digital Design and Editing class. Like the first story, I wrote this one and Jaylen King created the graphics.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott unveiled Friday his plans to re-open Texas amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Texas Tribune.

The plans include allowing curbside delivery for retail stores, loosening surgery restrictions at hospitals and clinics, and re-opening of state parks with social distancing protocols in place, according to the Texas Tribune.

Gov. Abbott says that plans for businesses to re-open won’t be released until April 27^th, according to CNN.com.

“In opening Texas, we must be guided by data and doctors.” He said, in his April 17^th press conference.

Gov. Abbott has established an economic “task force” to oversee the re-opening of the state’s economy, according to the Texas Tribune.

At his April 17^th briefing, the governor stressed that the need for the economy to be opened in stages.

“Obviously not all businesses can open all at once on May 1^st,” he said. “A premature opening of private businesses would risk further outbreaks.” According to CNN.com.

Opponents say the governor’s plan to re-open private businesses is premature, given the low number of tests that have been administered.

“We’ve got to improve our testing capacity,” State Representative Chris Turner told NBCDFW.com.  “Because we just don’t know how widespread this COVID-19 virus is in Texas.”

Gov. Abbott says current testing is enough but says that a team of doctors will work on community wide testing in May, according to nbcdfw.com.

“We want to test everyone so we can test those who are negative,” the governor told nbcdfw.com.

While Texas weighs the implications of lifting the lockdown, other states are extending stay at home orders.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has extended her state’s stay-at-home order until April 30^th, according to newsweek.com.

Gov. Whitmer told newsweek.com on April 10^th that, “Michigan has the 3^rd highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country,” and that “we must continue to do everything we can to slow the spread and protect our families.”

John J. Miller of the Wall Street Journal calls Gov. Whitmer’s orders, “draconian” and “arbitrary,” in an April 17^th opinion column.

“They [the edicts] also damage trust in the government,” Miller writes.  “Acts of civil disobedience are erupting around Michigan.”

Lockdown protestors blocked traffic near the capitol grounds in Lansing on April 15^th, in protest of Gov. Whitmer’s orders, according to usatoday.com.

“It feels like the Governor is doing this more like a publicity stunt,” Michigan Conservative Coalition board member Meshawn Maddock told usatoday.com. “It also feels like she’s mocking Michiganders.”

Under Gov. Whitmer’s latest order, she banned all non-essential jobs, private gatherings, and travel, to include travelling between two residences for those who own multiple homes, according to mlive.com.

“I’m upset,” Michigan business owner, Joan Bastine told the Wall Street Journal. Her lawncare service bills their clients by mail, never encountering them. However, under Gov. Whitmer’s orders, lawn care is deemed “nonessential.”

Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, a republican, expressed that Michigan is an, “outlier” and in an April 11^th Detroit News opinion piece.

“If the governor refuses to adopt the new model of safe vs. unsafe, then at a bare minimum, she should adopt the new, more forgiving standards,” Speaker Chatfield wrote.

COVID-19 cases continue to climb nationwide, New York City is bearing the brunt of the infection, with almost 69,946 confirmed cases in Queens and Kings counties alone, according to coronavirus.jhu.edu.

Despite these grim numbers, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that the state’s daily death toll had dropped from 630 to 540, according to nytimes.com.

“If you look at the past three days, you could argue we are past the plateau and starting to descend,” Gov. Cuomo said at his Apr.18^th briefing, “but we still are not in a good position.”

Gov. Cuomo refrained from criticizing the White House during his brief, stating that, “politicizing emotion” will make things, “worse quickly.”

“I’m not asking the federal government to do more than they need to,” he said. “But we need their coordination, we need their partnership.”