Leaked documents detail reopening plan for US: reports

US officials have secretly been working on a plan to reopen the hard-hit country in a matter of weeks, leaked documents reveal.

US officials have created a plan to “reopen” the country on May 1, starting with schools, camps and churches, according to a leaked report.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have created a strategy providing guidance to state and local officials on how to begin to ease stay-at home-restrictions.

The Washington Post – which obtained a copy of the document – reports the team has been working on their plan for the past week in conjunction with the coronavirus task force.

The White House and other agencies have prepared similar documents, but the one from FEMA includes information on how to safely reopen “schools, child care facilities, summer camps, parks, faith-based organisations and restaurants”, according to the US Sun.

The White House in Washington, DC.

The document, per the Post, is an eight-part plan described by one official as “a road map for if they want to do it gradually.”

The plan reportedly includes three phases.

Until May 1, the first part prepares the country “to reopen with a national communication campaign and community readiness assessment.”

Then through May 15, the plan “would involve ramping up manufacturing of testing kits and personal protective equipment and increasing emergency funding.”

The third phase then includes “staged reopenings” that would be dependent on local conditions.

The document also shares a warning, per the Post: “Models indicate 30-day shelter in place followed by 180-day lifting of all mitigation results in large rebound curve — some level of mitigation will be needed until vaccines or broad community immunity is achieved for recovering communities.”

US President Donald Trump during a meeting with healthcare executives, in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, in Washington. Picture: AP /Evan Vucci.

The officials who created the plan said the phases “will entail a significant risk of resurgence of the virus.”

A Trump administration official said the president has been so insistent on reopening the country that some of those close to him “worry that only a narrow window exists to provide information to change the president’s mind.”

“Beneath the bluster of the president saying May 1, and he’s in charge, and all the other things, there are real efforts to figure out how we could safely and actually do this,” the official told the Post.

On Monday, Donald Trump said he had “total” authority to make a decision like reopening the economy amid the coronavirus outbreak.

But governors from both political parties pushed back, noting they have the primary responsibility of making sure their states were safe.

The governors of Washington, California and Oregon announced this week they were working on a joint-plan about how to safely reopen the region when it’s safe to do so.

On Tuesday, the governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware also announced a similar coalition.

In other countries like Italy and Spain, reopening processes are underway as their infection and death rates begin to stabilise.

As of Wednesday morning, more than 609,000 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in the U.S., with over 26,000 deaths.

This article originally appeared in the US Sun and was republished with permission.