Cooper’s reopening plan for NC will be announced Thursday. GOP presses for details.
Gov. Roy Cooper will make an announcement at 3 p.m. Thursday about when and how to start lifting restrictions, as North Carolina tries to control the spread of coronavirus, a source close to the governor confirmed.
Cooper had earlier said he would announce a decision this week about the stay-at-home order, which is set to expire April 29, and on opening school facilities, which are now closed through May 15. Cooper did not hold a press conference on Wednesday.
WRAL first reported Wednesday that the governor’s announcement would be on Thursday.
With the state legislature due back on April 28, Senate Republicans have been putting pressure on Cooper to release more information and a detailed plan about lifting restrictions and reopening the state’s economy.
The Senate Republican caucus sent Cooper a letter on Tuesday asking for more data.
Cooper and state Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said earlier this week the reopening plan would be based on data including hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, The News & Observer previously reported.
Cooper also said Tuesday that he wants to “ease back” restrictions so the virus does not spike and overwhelm our hospitals. The governor said the decision about the reopening of schools will include guidance from public health officials about what is needed to make students safe in school, the N&O previously reported.
Cooper and Cohen said they would base lifting restrictions on COVID-19 testing expansion, contact tracing and trends in data including deaths and hospitalizations.
Cooper’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has for the most part been supported by Republican state leaders.
But as neighboring states South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee start lifting restrictions, politicians in the opposing party have become impatient.
The Senate Republican caucus letter said they want more data about testing and personal protective equipment supplies. The phrase “release the data” has been repeated by Republican state lawmakers and Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is running against Cooper for governor, as they make their cases on social media, too.
While the House has been holding public meetings for about a month to prepare legislation responding to the COVID-19 emergency, the Senate has been working on its own outside the public view. Senate Democrats released summaries of what they’ve been working on within their own caucus, which largely mirror the House’s bipartisan bill proposals.
Senate leader Phil Berger has been especially focused on antibody testing, which could indicate whether someone has already had COVID-19. The legislature is funding part of a study led by Wake Forest Baptist Health.
Forest supports that as well.
“With this additional capacity, our state must emphasize testing people for coronavirus antibodies with the same intensity that we are testing patients who are sick. ... We may well find out that COVID-19 has been here for some time and already peaked, allowing North Carolina to move faster on reopening,” Forest’s campaign spokesman Andrew Dunn told The News & Observer.
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 6:41 PM.
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