The leaders of six Mid-Atlantic states announced Monday the formation of a committee to help tackle how they will reopen businesses, schools, and other things that have been shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo (New York), Gov. Phil Murphy (New Jersey), Gov. Ned Lamont (Connecticut), Gov. John Carney (Delaware), and Gov. Gina Raimondo (Rhode Island) on a media conference call briefing to reveal the steps that will be taken.
Each state will nominate a representative from the health sector, an economic official, and the governors’ chief of staff for the working group.
Wolf suggested that the Keystone State’s participants would be Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Davin, and his chief of staff, Mike Brunelle.
“We all know that we can do anything better when we work together in this region, and we have done good things by working together,” Wolf said. “This partnership, this council that we’re forming here recognizes that simple fact.
“We need to do this right, and that’s what we’re trying to do. This partnership recognizes that we need to come up with a specific and smart plan for this uncertain future that lies ahead, and we’re creating a plan to let our people [know] that we indeed do have a future.”
Cuomo appears to be the leader of the group of governors, who released no specific timeline for when reopening could occur but expect the working group’s guidelines to take shape within weeks. Experts have suggested that the availability of mass testing options could signal that the time is right to relax social distancing guidelines among other mitigation efforts.
“Learn from the other countries, coordinate a set of guidelines, ASAP, but smart,” Cuomo said.
The multi-state council will rely on data and science to inform their decisions, not politics, they said, and all recognized that a one size fits all plan won’t be possible.
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“No one has done this before, so it’s one step forward, after research and consultation with experts,” Cuomo said.
“I’m not a public health expert. This has to be informed by experts and data. You take one step forward and see how it works. To the extent we can do this together, is the best course.”
Earlier Monday, President Donald Trump suggested that he, not governors, would decide when reopening could occur. Asked if this council was a response to the President’s tweet, Wolf said:
“Seeing how we had the responsibility for closing the state down, I think we have the responsibility to open the state up. This regional compact is premised on the idea that you’re not going to have a healthy economy if you don’t have healthy people.”
Wolf added:
“I don’t think we’re trying to say anything negative about anybody. We’re saying that it was our responsibility to steer our way through these uncharted waters, and it’s our responsibility to steer our way back.
“What we’re trying to do is, we’ve tried to have the hard stop that we need to make sure we stay as safe as we possibly can, and now we’re ready to go back to the next step, and moving back to some sense of normal, the new normal, and do it as we have [by] working together.
The council is expected to get to work immediately, and Cuomo invited other states wishing to join to do so.
“As we figure out how we’re going to reopen our businesses, our schools, we’re also going to recognize how we’re going to restore the sense of hope that this pandemic has taken from so many of us,” Wolf said.
“We’re going to show the people of the United States how you come out of something as devastating as this in a responsible fashion.”
