Protests highlight growing U.S. unease over coronavirus lockdowns

The U.S. debate over when to lift restrictions to control the coronavirus outbreak intensified on Monday, with protesters gathering in state capitals to demand an end to lockdowns and officials urging caution until more testing becomes available.

Stay-at-home measures, which experts say are essential toslow the spread of the virus, have ground the economy to avirtual standstill and forced more than 22 million people toapply for unemployment benefits in the past month.

In Pennsylvaniawhere Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf haspromised to veto a Republican-backed bill that would force himto reopen some businessesa few hundred protesters, most ofthem in cars, held a demonstration in Harrisburg, the capital.

Many of the protesters expressed cynicism toward healthexperts and skepticism about the actual scale of the pandemic inthe country, accusing officials of overreaching and takingactions that had caused more harm than the virus itself.

"All the projections were wrong, but we are still tellingpeople to stay home and businesses to close. This is notquarantine, this is tyranny," said Mark Cooper, a 61-year-oldretired truck driver.

U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican seeking re-election inNovember, has said state governors should have the final say buthas favoured an early end to the lockdowns, and many protestersin the past week have sported pro-Trump signs and campaign gear.

Republican lawmakers in several states have also backed theprotesters, some of whom have failed to wear face masks or practise the social distancing that health officials say are keyto getting the virus under control.

"The Democratic governors are just trying to kill theeconomy to hurt Trump," said Joe Buchert, a 48-year old retired police officer who was wearing a redTrump 2020 hat.

Meanwhile in Washington, lawmakers were squabbling over a possible$450 billion US-plus deal to provide more aid to small businessesand hospitals hurt by the crisis. Senate Republican leader MitchMcConnell said a vote could take place on Tuesday.

Congress last month passed a $2.3 trillion aid package thatincluded a small-business loan program. The Trump administrationwants to add $250 billion to that now-depleted program, whileDemocrats have pushed for including funding for state andmunicipal governments and food aid for the poor.

Fears of resurgence

Health experts and lawmakers on the front lines of thebattle to curb the pandemic have warned that the country couldface a second and even deadlier wave of infections if thelockdowns end prematurely.

The United States has by far the world's largest number ofconfirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 776,000 infectionsand over 41,000 deaths as of 4:30p.m. ET. Nearly half of them are in the state of NewYork, according to a Johns Hopkinstally.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said testing capacity had tobe ramped up and that reopening the economy in New York andother parts of the country would need to be calibrated carefully to prevent another surge in cases.

"You don't need protests to convince anyone in this countrythat we have to get back to work and we have to get the economygoing and we have to get out of our homes. Nobody," Cuomo told abriefing. "The question is going to become: how, when, how fastand what do we mean in terms of reopening."

Earlier, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said it couldtake weeks if not months before the country's most populous cityreopens due to a lack of widespread testing, even as officialselsewhere began rolling back restrictions on daily life.

"The federal government is not stepping up," de Blasio tolda news conference. He said the city needed to be conductinghundreds of thousands of tests a day and to see hospitalizationsdecline further before the economy reopens.

'Dangerous political game'

Trump, who has sparred with a number of Democratic governorscritical of his response to the health crisis, has said therewere enough tests for COVID-19, the respiratory illness causedby the novel coronavirus.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Trump said governors hadshifted from complaining about a scarcity of ventilators togriping about not having what they needed to ramp up testingcapacity, while he accusedthem of "playing a very dangerous political game."

"Now they scream 'Testing, Testing, Testing,' again playinga very dangerous political game. States, not the FederalGovernment, should be doing the Testing - But we will work withthe Governors and get it done," he said in a tweet.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said ramping up testingwas the top item on the administration's agenda.

Trump's guidelines to reopen the economy recommend a staterecord 14 days of declining case numbers before graduallylifting restrictions.

Residents in Florida were allowed to return to some beachesafter Gov. Ron DeSantis said some restrictions could be relaxed.

Charlie Latham, mayor of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., said the beachthere was reopened with limited hours, and it went well with noarrests for people violating social distancing rules whichbarred chairs and blankets.

"We thought that the public was ready to maintain the social distancing standards and to exercise good judgment. And it'spaid off, it's paid off really well," Latham told Fox News.