“It’s difficult to draw the line, but we know it when we see it,” McMaster said at a news conference on Monday. He said law enforcement officers would “vigorously” enforce the restrictions on “these sorts of gatherings that are invitations for infection.”
Economic Stress
Virginia’s Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said closing some nonessential businesses will add to economic stress, “but the sooner that we get this health crisis under control, the sooner our economy will recover.”
Eric Holcomb of Indiana, a Republican, on Monday ordered Hoosiers to remain home and said he would keep working with Washington “to get the financial help to the people most in need – and get it there now.”
Large Texas cities and counties are going their own way in the absence of statewide guidance from Governor Greg Abbott. Abbott refrained from a statewide shelter-in-place order during a Sunday afternoon news conference, pointing to the absence of positive Covid-19 cases in more than 200 of the state’s 254 counties. Abbott also said he wanted to see the full results of an executive order issued Thursday that closed all restaurant dining rooms and bars.
But Dallas County on Sunday night ordered residents to stay put for all but essential business activity and individual errands under a shelter-at-home order. On Monday, public officials in Waco and McLennan County followed suit, each issuing orders directing their residents to stay home.
Abbott isn’t the only governor leery of cracking down.
Florida Republican Ron DeSantis, a fervent Trump supporter, said Monday that he still isn’t prepared to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, arguing that 20 counties -- as of Monday morning -- still didn’t have confirmed cases. He implied that more draconian measures in New York had backfired.
“A lot of people fled the city,” DeSantis said. “They’re going to stay with their parents or they’re flying -- we’re getting huge amounts of people flying in. We’re looking at how to address those flights. I talked to the president last night about that.”
Federal medical experts, who have thus far played a central role in the administration’s response, have said that restrictions on movement and commerce are the only way to curb the pandemic within the U.S. But in past day Trump and his aides have begun floating the idea of rolling them back.
“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” Trump tweeted late Sunday.
“The president is right,” top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Monday on Fox News, adding he spoke about the matter with Trump within the last 24 hours. “We’re going to have to make some difficult trade-offs.”
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, said in a tweet that Vice President Mike Pence told her in a Monday phone call the administration isn’t considering a national shelter-in-place order.
“He assured me that @potus was focused on slowing the spread & doing everything to get our economy moving again!” Ivey said.
In neighboring Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee, another Republican, also downplayed the need for a statewide clampdown and stressed the harsh economic impact.
Still, he didn’t rule it out. “Decisions change every day,” Lee said in a news briefing.
--With assistance from Paul Stinson, Andrew Ballard, Jonathan Levin and Jennifer Jacobs.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.