House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., wants to use a set of federal standards to decide how states should reopen, the representative told reporters on Thursday.
"You really have to have a federal standard because as we know, viruses know no borders nationally. But they certainly don't know state borders," Pelosi said on Thursday. "We want to open up, but not in a way that causes more deaths."
Pelosi's suggestion comes on the same day the Trump administration dumped plans to adopt CDC guidelines to get states reopened.
Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, two prominent members of the coronavirus task force, have cautioned that lifting lockdown too soon could have deadly outcomes. White House officials have said the CDC guidelines allow for flexibility in how individual states reopen.
Many states are experiencing upticks in coronavirus cases, despite the number of new cases nationally flattening out. Still, governors have decided to ease social distancing rules, which goes against recommendations from the Trump administration.
The Trump administration standards include a four-phase process states should use to reopen. States should enter Phase 1 when: coronavirus cases have declined over a 14 day period, they have the proper equipment and personnel to conduct contract tracing for new cases, enough equipment to test those with symptoms for coronavirus and the necessary resources to treat infected patients.
Once Georgia allowed bars and restaurants to open last week the number of coronavirus cases began to increase.
About 24 states have partially reopened and another six are scheduled to relax restrictions next week.
Two dozen states have already partially reopened while another half dozen plan to in the coming weeks. Yet in more than half of these 30 states, new cases continue to climb.
"I think everything should be based on science and not state or local or whatever it is," Pelosi said.
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