United States President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled a three-phase plan to reopen the country’s economy, even as the toll due to coronavirus rose to 33,101, reported Associated Press. Trump gave governors a strategy laying out a “phased and deliberate approach” to restore normal activity in states with strong testing and a decline in Covid-19 cases.

“We’re starting our life again,” Trump said during a daily media briefing. “We’re starting rejuvenation of our economy again. This is a gradual process.”

The guidelines, named “Opening up America Again”, highlighted three phases in which states will gradually relax the curbs. Trump said the governors will get to decide on the removal of restrictions in their states, adding that they needed to do so “very, very quickly, depending on what they want to do”.

The areas with a falling number of infections and strong testing would start a three-phase gradual reopening of businesses and schools, according to the guidelines. Each phase will last for at least 14 days. The guidelines also included suggestions for all three phases for good personal hygiene and on social distancing practices for employers.

According to the guidelines, phase one includes more of the ongoing lockdown measures that suggest avoiding non-essential travel and large gatherings. However, it added that big venues, such as restaurants, and places of worship, “can operate under strict physical distancing protocols”, reported BBC.

Provided there was no evidence of a resurgence of Covid-19, phase two allows non-essential travel. The guidelines also said that schools may reopen. It added that bars can function “with diminished standing-room occupancy”. In phase three, states that are still witnessing a downward trend of symptoms and cases may allow “public interactions” with social distancing and the unconstrained staffing of worksites. Visits to care homes and hospitals could also begin in this phase.

So far, Covid-19 has affected 21.57 lakh people, and caused 1.44 lakh deaths in the world, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

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