McKinsey to medical kits: How states in US are planning to reopen economy

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has hired high-powered consultants to develop a science-based plan for the safe economic reopening of the region that can thwart expected pressure from President Donald Trump to move more rapidly, state government sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Cuomo, along with many other US governors, shut his state economy to limit the spread of the deadly Covid-19 virus and has warned that he is are prepared to keep businesses shut - perhaps for several months more - unless he can assure public safety.

Governors from seven East Coast states formed a coalition on Monday, led by New York, to develop a joint reopening plan. Three governors from the West Coast formed a similar plan. The 10 states, mostly led by Democrats, together make up 38% of the US economy.

As part of Cuomo's effort, McKinsey & Company are producing models on testing, infections and other key data points that will underpin decisions on how and when to reopen the region's economy, the sources said. Deloitte is also involved in developing the regional plan, a source said.

The goal is to "Trump-proof" the plan, said an adviser to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. "We think Trump ultimately will blink on this, but if not, we need to push back, and we are reaching out to top experts and other professionals to come up with a bullet-proof plan," to open on the state's terms, said a Cuomo adviser.

Trump, whose reelection bid was built on a strong economy before it was derailed by the epidemic, is losing patience with the economic blackout and has challenged governors who are preaching caution, setting the stage for larger clashes over the pace of the reopening.

Trump said in late March he hoped to reopen the economy by Easter in mid-April, but the mounting toll of infections and projected deaths forced him to extend federal guidelines for 30 days to the end of April.

White House to release guidelines on relaxing Covid-19 restrictions

The White House will release guidelines on Thursday to inform states on how to relax coronavirus restrictions and reopen businesses, said US President Donald Trump.

The remarks were made during a news conference on Wednesday. He claimed that data shows that the United States has "passed the peak" of Covid-19 cases nationwide, the Hill reported. The decision on what individual states do, however, will fall to governors across the country, he said.

"The battle continues but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases," Trump said at a news conference in the White House Rose Garden.

"These encouraging developments have put us in a very strong position to finalise guidelines on states for reopening the country," the President continued, adding that the White House would outline the guidelines during a news conference Thursday afternoon.

As of Wednesday evening, the novel coronavirus had infected over 630,000 Americans and resulted in over 28,000 deaths domestically, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Investors looking at medical tests, Europe, for signs of US economy reopening

The benchmark S&P 500 is up more than 25% from its March lows thanks to a combination of extraordinary intervention in the bond market by the Federal Reserve, a $2.3 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress and signs that the rate of infection in hot spots such as New York City is slowing. Those developments have led some analysts and investors to anticipate a reopening and forecast that the market has seen the worst of the selling.

However, other investors say that they will not believe that the U.S. economy can safely reopen until there are more medical reassurances put in place, ranging from widespread testing for the virus itself to the rollout of antibody tests that can show if a person is no longer at risk for infection.

Testing in many parts of the United States remains far behind other industrialized nations in coronavirus tracking, beset with long wait times and poor availability.