After President Trump issued the “Guidelines for Opening Up America Again” on April 16, many state governors around the country have begun reopening their states’ economies and rescinding stay-at-home orders. Other governors, however, have chosen to keep their states closed for business until at least May 15.

According to CNN, 18 states have decided to begin reopening their economies, or never shut them down in the first place. These states include Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Additionally, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., has announced that his state will begin reopening on Wednesday, April 29. And Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently declared that his state will begin reopening next week.

Some states like Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan and the District of Colombia have delayed their reopening dates until at least May 15. Other states, like California and New Jersey, have closed their economies with no targeted end in sight.

Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va., has extended his stay-at-home order until June 10, the latest date in the country as of publishing time.

Explaining his decision to keep his state’s economy closed until further notice, Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., said, “No one has given more thought or is more eager to restart our economy than I am, but if we don’t get the sequencing right, we put more lives at risk. The only path to a sustainable economic recovery is through a strong healthcare recovery. A coordinated, regional approach, informed by a multi-state council of experts, will help us avoid a major setback with potentially disastrous consequences.”

Though Gov. Krisi Noem, R-S.D., has been one of the governors who has been harshly criticized for refusing to shut down her state’s economy, some South Dakotans were so thankful for her decision that they decided to throw her a parade.

In a video posted to Gov. Noem’s Twitter page, numerous fire trucks and other cars can be seen driving around the governor’s mansion with sirens blaring and horns honking. “I am so blessed to serve the people of the great State of South Dakota. You folks made my day!” Gov. Noem said responding on Twitter.

Gov. Noem defended her decision last week saying, “I think we’ve got maybe 60 people in the hospital right now. We have 2,500 beds set aside for COVID-19 patients, but we only have 63 in. The facts on the ground here did not support shelter-in-place. We just didn’t have the spread.”

Some more rural states like South Dakota have not had same level of coronavirus spread that more populated states like New York have had. Though South Dakota has only had 2,313 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, New York has reported 295,106 confirmed cases.

Additionally, The Daily Citizen reported last week that New York state, after performing a random antibody test on small numbers of people, may have at least an estimated 2.7 million cases of COVID-19. That’s around 10 times higher than official tally of confirmed cases.

 

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