Trump Announces Plan for Gradual Re-Opening, Says 29 States May End Lockdown ‘Relatively Soon’

President Donald Trump unveiled an ambitious but very broadly sketched out White House plan for how states can end coronavirus mitigation efforts like social distancing and allow most businesses to re-open.

Speaking at the daily Covid-19 briefing on Thursday evening, Trump elaborated on its criteria for pulling back on the near-nationwide coronavirus lockdown and restart the economy. Calling the crisis a “historic battle,” Trump described a gradual campaign that delegated the power to governors to meet specific “gating criteria” to move their states through three phases to return to normal. He went on to say that 29 states could “relatively soon” move into the Phase 1 of the plan and roll back the strict guidelines that have choked much of the nation’s commerce.

“We are opening up our country. And we have to do that,” Trump insisted, although the daily death toll remains at near record highs and has now surpassed 33,000. “Americans want to be open. As I have said for sometime now, a national shutdown is not a sustainable long-term solution. To preserve the health of our citizens, we must also preserve the health and functioning of our economy. Over the long haul you can’t do one without the other. It cannot be done. To keep vital supply chains running, they have to be taken care of. The balance is delicate. We want to deliver food and medical supply. He would must have a working economy, and we want to get it back very, very quickly. And that’s what is going to happen. I believe it will boom.”

“A prolonged lockdown combined with an economic depression would inflict an immense and wide ranging toll on health,” Trump continued. “The public and world has suffered. 184 other countries have suffered. Therefore my administration is issuing new federal guidelines that allow governors to take a phased and delivered approach to reopening their individual states.”

However, a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll from Wednesday found overwhelming support for continuing the rigid coronavirus mitigation efforts over any re-opening of the economy that could spur the spread of the outbreak. More than eight in 10 voters agreed that the country should “continue to social distance for as long as is needed to curb the spread of coronavirus, even if it means continued damage to the economy.” This sentiment is also broadly bipartisan, with 89% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans sharing the view. In addition, only 37% percent support a partial return of Americans going to work if the Covid-19 virus is still spreading, while a majority — 52 — oppose restarting different portions of the economy with the virus threat still high.

Trump, though focused on the states who have not been hard hit by the coronavirus so far later in the press conference.

“I think 29 states are in that ball game. Not for opening but will be able to open relatively soon,” Trump explained. “I think the remainder are getting better. New York, New Jersey are having very tough times. And they’ll be there. They’ll be there at some point but they’re not going to be one of the earlier states.”

“But we have a lot of states through location, through luck. also through a lot of talent, we have states through a lot of talent are in a very good position and they’re getting ready to open over the next very short period of time,” Trump claimed. “It’s going to be up to the governors. I think you’re going to see quite a few states starting to open and I call it a beautiful puzzle. You have 50 pieces, all very different, but when it’s all done, it’s a mosaic. When it’s a done it will be a very beautiful picture.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.