Daily US Times: Protesters are taking the streets across the United States, demanding the governors to reopen economies shut by the coronavirus pandemic.
Rallies in Washington, Colorado, Montana and Arizona state took place on Sunday, following earlier protests in half a dozen states.
Despite the risk of a Covid-19 resurgence posed by reopening too soon, agitation for easing restrictions has grown.
President Donald Trump has signalled support for the protests.
Currently, the US has become the centre of the Covid-19 crisis, with some 40,000 deaths and over 735,000 cases – but signs have emerged that it is reaching the peak of the outbreak and that infection rates are slowing in some states.
Hundreds of people gathered in Washington state – many of them ignoring social distancing guidelines – to demand the governor relax rules restricting the economy. Washington was an early virus hotspot in the country.
Governors in several states have begun their discussions to plan reopening the economy amid signs of the slowdown, but other regions remain under strict lockdown.
California was first in the nation to implement a state-wide stay home order, shuttering the country’s most populous state since 19 March. Neighbouring west coast states Oregon and Washington followed the step days later, putting their combined 11.5 million residents under a stay at home order since 23 March.
The country’s virus hotspot New York is extending its stay-at-home order as Governor Andrew Cuomo announced this week that the state would extend its stay home measures until 15 May.
At his daily press conference on Sunday, the New York Governor urged caution to residents, beset with “cabin fever” and desperate for their state to reopen.
“We still have to make sure we keep that beast under control,” Mr Cuomo said. “As we all get very eager to get on with life and move on,” he said.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, appeared to support the reopen protests against strict lockdown. The lockdown needed to curb the virus, but he said on Friday that orders in places in Virginia, Michigan, and Minnesota were ”too high”.
Jay Inslee, Washington Governor, called the president’s support of the protesters “dangerous”, tantamount to encouraging “insubordination” to state laws.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, he said: “To have an American president to encourage people to violate the law, I can’t remember any time in my time in America we have seen such a thing.”
House Speaker and a top Democrat Nancy Pelosi accused Mr Trump of endorsing the protests as a “distraction”.
You may read: New York Governor allows couples to tie the knot over Zoom
