A man buys during the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) on New York’s 5th Avenue on February 17, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
More states are moving to significantly reopen their economies and end their masked mandates despite requests from top U.S. officials to tread carefully until more Americans are vaccinated against Covid-19.
On Tuesday, Maryland became the last state to largely restart its economy when Gov. Larry Hogan announced that restaurants, retailers and other businesses will be able to reopen without capacity restrictions beginning Friday.
Governors of Texas, Maryland, Mississippi, Connecticut, Arizona, West Virginia and Wyoming have announced similar plans in recent days as the pace of inoculations accelerates and Covid-19 cases and deaths recede.
Some states are taking softening restrictions more gradually. New Jersey and New York jointly announced Wednesday that New York City restaurants will be able to reopen at half capacity, just 35%, starting March 19th.
California said it intends to reopen its illustrious theme parks, outdoor stadiums and ball parks starting April 1, albeit with reduced capacity.
Theme parks like Walt Disney’s Disneyland will only be allowed to admit only Golden State residents at first, the state health department said. Disney CEO Bob Chapek said Tuesday in a statement that the company will need time to recover and train employees with rehearsals, with the goal of reopening it in late April.
The decision to move forward and loosen restrictions has challenged warnings from top Biden administration public health officials urging states to temporarily stop reopening businesses after the decline in Covid-19 infections. the nation began to be plateau. However, they acknowledged Wednesday at a Covid-19 White House press meeting that daily infections appear to be declining once again.
“There are so many things that are critical over the next two months,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. he told the National League of Cities Monday. “How quickly we’ll vaccinate and whether we’ll have another wave really depends on what happens in March and April.”
Full capacity
Texas ’state mask mandate ended Wednesday and will allow their businesses to reopen“ 100%, ”Gov. Greg Abbott announced last week, citing a decline in daily infections and the availability of vaccines.
The move left several retailers and restaurants in Texas, the largest state to date, to relax all restrictions, to decide whether to relax their restrictions or to ask customers to continue wearing masks. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves lifted state capacity restrictions on businesses, while also set aside the state’s mask mandate last week.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced Monday that the state’s bars, restaurants, theaters and gyms will be able to resume “normal operations” beginning March 16, saying the state’s most vulnerable residents now have access to the vaccine, according to a statement.
Arizona, West Virginia and Connecticut have also moved to reopen restaurants, fitness centers and other companies at full capacity, although states will maintain their mask requirements. In late February, Arkansas lifted capacity restrictions on bars, gyms, restaurants and large venues.
These states are following in Florida’s footsteps when it announced as early as September that it would lift capacity restrictions on all bars and restaurants.
Some Republicans require a nix mask
Other Republican state leaders beyond Texas and Mississippi have recently eliminated general state mask requirements, including Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota and Montana, while others have announced plans to lift their orders in the coming weeks.
Wyoming Gov. Gordon said the state’s mandate will end when its businesses reopen on March 16. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said last week she would lift her state’s mask requirement from April 9th.
“While I am convinced that a mask mandate has been the right one, I also respect those who oppose it and I think this was a step too far in government coverage,” Ivey told a news conference. Thursday.
However, even people who are vaccinated against the disease should continue to wear face shields in public and when meeting with people who may be vulnerable to the disease, according to CDC’s new guidelines for inoculated Americans published Monday.
“While the new direction is a positive step, many more people need to be vaccinated before everyone can stop taking most of the precautions against COVID-19,” the CDC said.
US not “out of the woods”
The U.S. recorded a daily average of approximately 57,436 new cases over the past week, a sharp drop compared to the peak of nearly 250,000 daily cases in the U.S. in in early January, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
While the decline in daily cases “is good news,” the United States is still battling a high number of infections every day and infections “could return to an unacceptably high level,” the doctor said Tuesday. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House. .
“The story of this virus has told us when you start reaching the plateau at a level as high as this, which is between 60,000 and 70,000 cases a day, and by no means are you out of the forest,” Fauci told Walensky’s side earlier this week.
In addition, new highly transmissible variants of the virus, specifically strain B.1.1.7 found in the UK, will become the predominant variant in the US by the end of March.
A faster spreading virus could lead to more cases, hospitalizations and deaths, warn public health experts and some early data indicate that variant B.1.1.7 could be more deadly. Fauci said the United States is now evaluating the impact of “self-produced” variants, including the one believed to have originated in New York.
– Associated Press and Berkeley Lovelace Jr. of CNBC contributed to this report.