The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have created a plan to reopen America after the country was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in China.

“CDC and FEMA officials have worked on the public health response for at least the past week, and the resulting document has been discussed at the White House, including by members of the coronavirus task force,” The Washington Post reported. “The version obtained by The Post appears to be an early draft by FEMA and contains granular instructions for a phased reopening of institutions such as schools, child-care facilities, summer camps, parks, faith-based organizations and restaurants.”

The plan essentially starts now with the goal that communities can start to be reopened on May 1.

A White House official told The Washington Post: “Beneath the bluster of the president saying May 1, and he’s in charge, and all the other things, there are real efforts to figure out how we could safely and actually do this.”

The plan outlines designating communities in three categories:

Low Mitigation – communities where significant spread was never observed, can “re-open” soon

Moderate Mitigation – former hot spots entering controlled recovery, limited mitigation communities observing increased, but contained transmission

Significant Mitigation – current or emerging hot spots, moderate mitigation communities showing signs of strained capacity

The plan notes that “significant advancements in testing, therapeutics, and investments in the public health and health care systems” have allowed the Trump administration to get to this point where they are ready to get things going again.

Decisions on reopening individual communities – which will be made at the federal, state, and local levels – are contingent on:

Confidence that incidence of infection is genuinely low.

A surveillance system that is well functioning and capable of promptly detecting any increase in incidence.

A public health system that is reacting robustly to all cases of COVID-19 and has surge capacity to react to an increase in incidence.

A health system that has the capacity in all respects, including inpatient beds, staffing, an other services, to handle all cases and that is in a position to rapidly scale up to deal with a surge in cases.

The three macro-phases outlined in the plan are:

Phase 1: Prepare the Nation (now-May 1) National Communication Campaign Tools to Assess Community Readiness to Re-Open Closed Spaces (by April 15) Dashboards For Ongoing Decision Support For Adjusting Mitigation Strategies Coordination Facilitated Across Proximate Geographic Areas By State And Federal Officials In Order To Share Changes Across Indicators And Coordinate Adjusted Mitigation Approaches

Phase 2: Innovation and Ingenuity Applied to Pandemic (now – May 15) Economic Recovery through Pandemic Management Economic Recovery through Support for Local Businesses & Schools

Phase 3: Staged Re-Opening (varies by local conditions – not before May 1) Low Mitigation Locations (first to open) Moderate Mitigation Locations – Step Down From Significant To Moderate Mitigation, Or Step Up From Low To Moderate Mitigation (Based On Indicators (Not Likely Before June?) Significant Mitigation Communities (Remain In Shelter In Place Until Thresholds Are Met) Continuous Monitoring and Mitigation Adjustment ALL Communities (Now Until End Of Spread Or Vaccine Availability)

